


The Young Vampire

by J_EnotsoLovely, TsukiHotaru



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Angst, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, No Romance, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Child Abuse, Platonic friendships, Sabo isn't having a good time, Sabo need's a hug, Supernatural Elements, Vampire Sabo, Vampires, dark theme's, kinda like devil fruits, my interpretation of vampires, some fucked up things happen later on, sorry ma dudes, the Koala/Sabo is platonic, vampires have supernatural abilities
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-13
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:00:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 22,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27497590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/J_EnotsoLovely/pseuds/J_EnotsoLovely, https://archiveofourown.org/users/TsukiHotaru/pseuds/TsukiHotaru
Summary: After Ace kicked Sabo out of their home, because of Sabo almost getting him and Luffy killed, Sabo was left alone. He knew his temperamental older brother only wanted Luffy to be safe, but it hurt knowing this one screw up would change his life forever. While hunting in the woods one day, Sabo was kidnapped by a vampire and taken away. After months of torture, the vampire did the unthinkable and turned him at the age of 10. Now stuck as a child for all of eternity, he has to learn how to handle his new life and new found powers.
Relationships: Koala/Sabo (One Piece), Monkey D. Luffy & Portgas D. Ace & Sabo, Monkey D. Luffy & Sabo, Portgas D. Ace & Sabo, Portgas D. Ace/Sabo
Comments: 53
Kudos: 87





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Story is Beta and Edited by J_EnotsoLovely! (the co-author)

He knows he screwed up. He thinks his plan is flawless, that it would allow him and his brothers to raid the shack without alerting the gang that ran it. But it all goes to hell the moment they get inside.

Luffy was shot in the arm and Ace had multiple cracked ribs from their escape.

After finally getting home and treating his brothers, Ace snaps, a sharp sound, like breaking wood in two.

“Your plan almost got me and Luffy killed!” Ace yells, glaring at Sabo who is on the ground, gingerly holding the cheek that just got punched.

“I didn’t mean for that to happen! They weren’t even supposed to know we were there!” The blonde retorts, standing back up to look at the eldest.

“This wasn’t the first time we almost got killed because of one of your crazy plans! But this was the closest we got to Luffy actually almost _DYING!_ And I’m sick and tired of you thinking you know everything and what’s best for everyone when obviously you _don’t!_ You’ve put Luffy in danger one too many times!” Ace yelled back, grabbing the front of Sabo’s shirt to shake him harshly.

Sabo grabs his arm, glaring back at his brother. Not _all_ of his plans get them hurt, in fact, most of them actually go off without so much as a _hitch_. Recently though, the local gang they've been trying to steal from poses a problem. They seem to read he and his brothers every move and more often than not one of them ends up getting hurt.

Sometimes really bad. Like Luffy is now.

“Then what are you saying Ace?!”

“I'm saying, I want you _gone_!”

Sabo stares at his brother in shock. His mouth opens and closes, but words refused to come out. He knows his eldest brothers' temper very well, they’ve been best friends for years, so he knows never to take Ace's threats and insults to heart.

But this is the first time Ace got so angry that he wanted Sabo gone. This was the first time that he _meant_ it.

“Y-You… A-Ace..” Sabo mutters, eyes pleading, but Ace just shoves him away and glares. He stare at his brother-- former bother(?)-- before slowly looking at Luffy, who is passed out on the bed, pale and breathing heavily. The consequences of being shot.

 _Ace is right._ He think's and the thought is almost enough to make him double over in pain. All he’s been doing as of late is put them in unnecessary danger, and today he almost got them _killed._

It hurts knowing Ace wants him gone, but it hurts more knowing he agreed.

Without a word, he slowly turns towards the door and walks to it, grabbing the pipe that is learning against the wall. He stops in front of the door, hoping that his brother will say something, _anything._

Nothing happens.

Tears gathering in his eyes, Sabo opens the door.

“I’m sorry…” He mutters, before running out and away from the only place he’s ever called home.

~~

It’s been a month since he left home. He isn’t sure if he should go back and try to talk things out with Ace, but every time he comes close to going back, he always decides against it. Letting out a sigh, Sabo walks around the forest he’s been living in, looking for dinner.

He misses his brothers, all he wants to do is go home and make things right. But he knows Ace. He knows Ace better than anyone, and since this time he almost got Luffy killed-- _for real_ this time-- Sabo knows Ace will never forgive him. It is also something that will haunt him forever, knowing _he_ is the reason Luffy got hurt. Sabo wonders that if one day, they could meet each other again and be friends..

The blonde is so deep in thought, he didn’t notice the figure sneaking up behind him.

Sighing softly, he starts to walk a little faster to find something to eat, but when arms wrapped around his waist from behind and jerking him back roughly, he panics.

Thrashing around, he struggles to get away from the tight grip holding onto him. He goes to swing his pipe, intending to hit whatever-- _whoever_ was behind him, but one of the hands grabs his wrists in an iron clad hold, restricting his moves.

“Well aren’t you a _feisty_ little guy. I think I’ll have plenty of fun with you.” The person says in a chilling voice, sending an unpleasant shiver down Sabo’s spine. Before he can even utter a yell, something hits in him in the back of the head and all that greeted him after was darkness.

~~

Sabo wakes up with a groan, holding his head tightly. He knows he got kidnapped, it doesn't take a genius to realize that after remembering what happened. Slowly opening his eyes, he looks around to see he’s in a small cell. The surrounding walls are made of rock, with iron bars stopping him from escaping. Through the bars, he can see a large cave that looks like someone lived there.

It is lit up with lanterns, giving the area an orange glow. There is a table with a single chair near it, which looks like a desk since it has multiple papers and books, along with writing materials. The ground looks nasty, with stains all over the place that looks brown or something far worse. What really unsettles him is the table closest to his cell.

It is a wooden table that has straps on it. It has stains covering both the surface and the ground around it, and with a sickening sense of understanding, Sabo realizes that he is staring at blood stains. Next to it is a smaller table, that holds different types of knives, hammers, and other objects that are obviously used for torture. Sabo wonders how many have perished at that table with how thick the bloodstain are around and on it. But he quickly pushes that thought away, not wanting to dwell on that area any longer.

He moves closer to the bars, gripping them and tugging them as hard as he can to see if any of them were loose. They were all sturdy, meaning he had no way of getting out unless he was an animal that could slip through. That didn’t mean he won’t try though, he is determined to get away from whatever hell he has just been thrown into.

“Ah wonderful, you’re awake!” His head snaps over to the voice, seeing a tall pale man with bright pink eyes and black hair. His clothes looked a little tattered, but what Sabo was really focused on was his mouth. Which was sporting two sharp fangs within his sinister smirk. A sign this man was a vampire.

“What do you want with me?” He asks, glaring at the man as he walks closer to the cell, Sabo backing away from the bars since he didn’t like how close the man was getting.

“Ah nothing really.. You see I have a small.. Hobby I guess you could say.” The man explains, eyeing Sabo with a malicious glint.

“Hobby..?”

“Yes, yes, a hobby. You see, I _love_ watching the weak suffer.. watch them slowly break with each passing day till they’re nothing more than a _corpse_. Use them as my personal blood bank till they drop." The man pouts, pink eyes flashing with dark promise. "I just lost my most recent catch, the thing didn’t even last a week. But then I found _you._ ” His captors smirk grows to inhuman proportions as he explains. Sabo’s eyes widen at this, trying to stop his fear from growing more as the vampire keeps talking.

“Don’t you _dare_ touch me or I’ll-“

“Or you’ll what exactly? You’re just a child, and I know you’ve seen what I am… you are no match for me, boy.” With these words, the man opens up Sabo’s cell and walks inside, cornering the boy against the wall.

The blonde tries to make a break for it past the vampire, hoping by some chance he could get past, but once feels a hand wrap around his neck, he knows he is doomed.

“Now then… let the fun being.”

That’s when Sabo’s life became complete hell.


	2. Chapter 2

Sabo is curled up in his cell, holding the side of his neck tightly as it feels like it is on fire. It’s been about a little over a month since his torment began, and the only way Sabo can describe it is pure hell.

The vampire, who he deems as ‘The Bastard’, takes every pleasure in making Sabo’s life miserable. His first day of torture hurt like hell, being beaten to a pulp, then got deep cuts all around his body, that were stitched together without anything to numb the pain. Each day was a different torture, from beatings to getting cut up, to even fighting for his life against a rabid bear of wolf. If the Bastard can come up with it, he _will_ try it.

But this was the first time the man has ever taken blood from him. He learns that the Bastard was drinking from other children before finally deciding he will do it to Sabo as well. Vampires can live off the blood of animals, but this man doesn't want to do that. No he wants to drink from a sweeter source, a young human.

It hurts like hell, especially because the day prior his arms were cut into ribbons, before being wrapped up haphazardly. He was already low on blood due to the blood-loss from yesterday, but that didn’t matter to the vampire. All that mattered to him was he could get fed.

But even after everything, all the beatings and blood-loss, Sabo refuses to give in. He wants to see this through until he can finally escape. Wanting to go back home even if he wasn’t welcomed.

“You’re the longest any of my toys have lasted.. the longest before was 3 weeks, but you’ve managed to last a month.” The man standing at his cell says, licking his lips of any blood that might still be on it. Sabo, dizzy from the loss of blood, stays laying there, glaring at the man.

“I.. refuse to die here… W-When I get out of here I promise you… I w-will kill you…” Sabo says, trying to sound confident and determined, but only sounds shaky and soft. The Bastard just laughs and starts walking away.

“Luckily for you, I like you. I don’t want to kill you just yet.. I want to break that determination of yours. I’ll leave you alone for now, but once I start up again… well I’ll have _more_ than enough ways to make you snap.” He laughs as he left the save, leaving Sabo in the cold cell gripping his neck.

He takes a deep breath, before carefully pushing his body off the ground to lean against the back of the cell. Even that simple action made his head spin, forcing him to hold on the wall as he muffles his groans. Sabo knows that with his body like this, he couldn’t be able to make a proper escape. Even if he wasn’t bitten and drank from, his body wouldn’t be able to function with the daily torture methods the man thinks up. Luckily not every method includes blood-loss, but still.

If Sabo doesn't come up with a plan soon, he most likely will be dead sooner rather than later.

~~

Two months. He has so far lasted two months and two feedings with this insane vampire. Sabo knows his sanity is wearing out, not knowing how much longer he can last. But he is determined to hold out as long as he can.

Laying on his back, he has his eyes closed as he attempts to rest. Yesterday the Bastard tried drowning him, causing his lungs to burn and gasp for air while under the water. He tried holding his breath, but every time he did the vampire would punch him to make him gasp. Sabo would have been impressed with the man’s ability to think of different torture methods almost every other day.

Hearing his cell door open, he didn’t bother opening his eyes. He didn’t have the energy to, so he strained his ears to listen to the bastards every movement. Hearing something slosh around in what he assumed was a bucket, Sabo wondered if it was ice water to wake him up again. But then the liquid was poured all along his left side, starting from his eye and all the way down his leg. He jolts away before the liquid could be poured onto his right, smelling that it was definitely not water.

“Ah so you woke up, good.” He said with a smirk, holding what looked like a gas can in one hand, and matches in the other. That did not do well for Sabo’s nerves in the slightest bit.

“What are you doing…?” He muttered, eyes the match wearily. The Bastard just laughed and walks out the door, setting down the gas can and picking up a bucket to bring into the cell. He kept his distance from Sabo, but his smirk never faded as he set the bucket down and grabbed a match, lighting it. Sabo watched the flames, fear slowly growing once more.

“You’re so damn stubborn ya know? It’s amazing to see how long you’ve lasted.. So I want to step up my game one more time. But don’t worry, I won’t let you die. I still have one more idea after this one.. one that I have used before but has killed the children I’ve tried it on.. For now though.” The man’s smirk grew wider, flicking the match at Sabo. “I hope you don’t mind the heat.”

Sabo tries to avoid the match, but it is too late and the flames lap eagerly at the gasoline that's coating his entire left side. In an instant it goes up in flames as he scream. The pain is worse than any of the cuts, beatings, or drowning he has dealt with through out his entire ordeal here. He feel his skin start to shrivel, and no matter how hard he ties to put the flames out they won't _stop_. He has his eyes closed, praying the flames won't make him go blind. 

The smell of burning flesh filled the small cell, and if it wasn’t for the fact he was on fire, Sabo probably would have gagged. After what felt like an eternity, water was thrown on him, putting out the flames in the matter of seconds.

Sabo lays there, whimpering and gripping the left side of his face with his regular, _normal_ hand. The fact he still has an eyelid is good, meaning that it might have survived the ordeal. Hearing a chuckle, he feels himself getting dragged out of the cell and lifted onto a table.

“That was wonderful, now I’ll treat you so that you don’t die just yet.. I just wanted to make you suffer this badly one last time before I put my final plan into action.” The Bastard said, but Sabo doesn't listen as he gets treated. He is to focused on the pain coming from his burned and chard left side. He can still hear some parts sizzling even after the sudden water bath. If there is something worse than being burned alive and almost dying, he is now terrified.

~~

The next two weeks the bastard actually allows Sabo to recover from his burns. While the treatment is poor and he will most likely scar horribly, it is treatment none the less. He learns that his eye in fact _did_ survive the fire, that is the best thing he can ask for right now. Though out the two weeks of poor treatment, Sabo kept thinking on what the vampire was planning. The Bastard was obviously excited about what he had planned, which only made Sabo more and more terrified.

Letting out a sigh, he tightens the bandages around his head since they came lose in his sleep. He noticed how quiet it was and when he peeked out through the bars, he saw he was alone. He hopes-- albeit begrudgingly-- that the man will come back with some food for him to eat.

Its been ages since he last ate.

Rubbing the right side of his face, he scoots to the back of his cell, pulling his knees to his chest. Though he is feeling the best he has had in weeks, he still knows that he won’t be able to get out of this place alive if he doesn’t have a solid plan. His new burns hinder his movements somewhat, making him feel stiff. All he can do is wait for his chance..

Suddenly he hears footsteps, glancing up to see the vampire walking over to his cell. The unsettling smirk is more disturbing than usual.

“Hello my favorite little toy, it’s good that you’re awake now.”

“And why’s that..?” Sabo watches the man with caution as he starts unlocking his cell.

“Because it’s time.” Sabo’s blood ran cold at that. He isn’t sure what this crazy bastard has planned, but whatever it is he has a strong feeling it will be worse than being burned alive.

The man walks over to him and picks him up by his tattered shirt, carrying him out of the room and to the table. But he isn’t strapped down, just sat on the edge. So he tries to kick the man away, but his leg is grabbed and forced back down.

“Now now no need for that. You’re freedom won’t matter in the end.” Sabo watches the man in fear, seeing his fangs grow. Is the man going to drink him dry? Till there isn’t a single drop of blood left? His struggling body was held still with one arm, the other reaching up and grabbing his hair, tilting his head to the side to give the vampire more room to bite.

“You’ll be my minion soon enough.” Before Sabo can even register the sentence, the man’s jaw clamps down on his neck, fangs sinking in deep. He feels some of his blood being drained, before it is replaced with an intense burning sensation that lights his insides on fire. His mouth drop to let out a scream, but no sound comes out. His body is shaking as the man bites harder, and Sabo can’t help but feel like his body was changing. Morphing, becoming something.... _other._

But due to the intense burning and pain from his neck and body, he blacksout.

~~

The next time Sabo wakes up, he realizes he is in his cell again laying on the ground. His entire body aches and as he tries to sit up, his neck throbs painfully, accompanied by a stabbing discomfort in his teeth hurt. Glancing around, he is amazed to realize he is still alive, still breathing.

But also that things around him seemed a little shaper.

His vision has changed.

Looking down, he notices he is a lot paler than a few hours before, even without the sun for many weeks. But he knows his body. Its his body. Its his. So he knows. Sabo _knows_ he wasn’t this pale before. The smell of blood is more intense, causing his head to spin and stomach to growl, a rumbling sound in the silence. 

“Well it didn’t take you long to wake up, good.” His head snapped up, seeing the bastard standing at the bars, holding what looked like a dead fox that was bleeding a little. Sabo couldn’t take his eyes off the blood, and it unsettled him to no end.

“W-What have you done to me…” He asked, shaking slightly.

“Ah nothing much.. but you must be starving.” He opened the cell door and tossed in the dead fox, it landing right in front of Sabo. “Why don’t you eat.”

“I-I can’t eat this fox raw.. I’ll get sick..” He muttered, but sees that when the fox hit the ground some blood splattered onto his hand. Lifting it, he stares at the blood splatters there. His eyes water as the only thought that runs through his mind is that he wants the blood.

He wants to _drink_ the blood. _Consume_ it and feel the contents rest easy in his stomach. He wants it so much that it _aches._

“I’m not saying you eat the foxes meat..” The vampire smirks. “I’m telling you to drink its blood.”

Sabo froze, now realizing what that Bastard did to him. The bite, the burning sensation in his neck, why he felt different, why his teeth hurt. He wasn’t human anymore.

“N-No…. no no no no…” Eyes watering, he begins to shake as he stares at the blood on his hands. He can't stop himself from lifting his palm, tears streaming down his face as he tentatively licks at the crimson liquid, only to feel his body jolt and beg for more. His tongue explores his teeth, feeling the new fangs that grown have grown in. Sabo couldn’t help the small sob from escaping him as he realized he wasn’t human anymore, but a monster, a vampire. Eternally stuck at the age of 10.

“Realize it now hmm?~ It’s a taboo to change children, but really when have I cared for rules. Slowly I will break you more and more, till you’re nothing more than my mindless puppet that I command to do my bidding. Have fun with your dinner!” The man laughs, walking out of the cave to leave Sabo alone in his fear.

Sabo feels his body quickly start to heal up all the cuts and burns, but the burns only a little bit. He is a vampire now, something that everyone fears. Sabo wonder how long it will take him to starve, but he has heard stories about vampires going insane due to a lack of food. The small fact scares him as he stares at the fox in front of him. Letting out a sob, he slowly picks up the dead animal, seeing the man shaved off the fur around its neck.

He is scared, he doesn't want to do this. He just wants nothing more than to go home and be with his brothers once again. But that dream's far off now. He and his brothers used to want to be vampire hunters, hunting down those who harmed the innocent. But now he was a blood sucker, their enemy.

Mustering up the little courage he has, he bites his fangs into the fox and drinks. He lets out a muffled sob as he realizes he enjoyed the taste of it.

It makes him realize.

That his mortal life is now over, replaced with an eternal painful one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO THATS ALL FOR NOW!!
> 
> I have about 9 chapter in total written for this story. But the thing is I'm very self-conscious regarding my writing. It's been a while since I have posted a proper multichapter story. 
> 
> So I decided to put out two test chapters, to test the waters and see if people like it! So comment and feedback is greatly appreciated so I can learn if people want more!
> 
> If I get enough decent feedback, I'll totally make this a story I'll be updating more with my other chapters and ideas!!
> 
> And thank you so much to Eir for beta and editing this, it means a lot to me! <3
> 
> So for now, c'ya around!!


	3. Chapter 3

The Bastard is having _way_ too much fun with this. Sabo has been a vampire for a month now and from what he could tell, it was getting closer to winter. The cave is cold, offering mild chills, but it doesn’t seem to actually _bother_ him. The older vampire didn’t give him anything else to drink after the fox, but he does realize normal food can hold him over for a little while before his real hunger begins to set in. The longest he's been able to last so far is close to 4 days, 5 on the occasions he's really able to hold the urge down before the monster in him begins craving more. He doesn’t remember what happened the first time his hunger took over, but he notices the bastard has thick bandages around his arm and came to the conclusion that his blackouts are extremely dangerous. After that the man would give him something to drink every 4 to 5 days, obviously not wanting to risk his own life anymore.

As the days pass, Sabo can only listen to the man explaining everything about vampires to him. How their senses and speed are much greater than humans, how each vampire has their own given ability upon birth or turn. These abilities can range from ESP, talking to animals, or elemental manipulation. But Sabo didn’t really care about this, because after he was turned, the torture began once again. This time the bastard decided to test his healing capabilities, while they weren’t as quick as older vampires, he healed fast either way.

Today though, he is curled up in the corner of his cell with his eyes closed, trying to think of ways to escape. He tries moving the bars with his new found strength, but just ends up realizing that they are reinforced, making a mental note this wasn’t the man’s first time turning a child. If he can’t bend the bars, or break them, the only other way to leave is to get the key from the older vampire somehow, which was most likely impossible.

If only he was a small animal, like a cat, then he could easily just slip through the bars and just run away. Away from this horrible place that has done nothing but bring misery to him. Just as the thought crosses his mind, his body tingles and gives him a small jolt. Snapping his eyes open he looks around, panting slightly from the sudden movement. At first he doesn’t notice anything off other than his body feeling weird.

But then everything changes, and the room is significantly longer.

The walls tower over him, and the bars look larger. He tries to stand up but stumbles, limbs feeling like jelly. Glancing down, Sabo feels his pulse spike in shock.

_Holy shit I have paws._

He jumps up, stuttering slightly with the new found four legs, and looks himself over the best he could. The blonde notices he was small, fur a pal yellow and a bit little long. Looking back, he spots a long fluffy white tail mixed with blood. 

His wish came true.

He is a cat. _Fucking hell, he's a **cat**. _It must be his ability as a vampire. And is _super_ cool.

He shakes his head, telling himself to focus. 

The fact that he can change isn't the problem right now, he needs to leave and leave right this _instant_ before the man gets back.

Taking a few test steps to get used to being on all fours, he notices it is a lot easier than it seems. Maybe it just comes naturally to him. That would make sense, being as it is his ability. He carefully walks through the bars, glancing around to make sure the crazy bastard isn’t around, before emerging into the larger part of the cave. Without a second thought, he starts to run towards the entrance.

As he dashes past the desk, he sees what looks like a slip of paper and something shiny. 

Risking a moment to take a look, he scans his cat eyes over the paper.

Its his captors handwriting, a document of some sort. At the end of the paper was a signature, _Dimka._ So that's the bastards name. Letting out a slight growl, he jumps onto the chair and looks on the desk, seeing a single silver ring resting near the edge.

His eyes widen when he realizes it was _his_ ring, the ring he and his brothers stole together as a sign of their siblingship. They all have matching ones, and Sabo’s had been taken the moment he was kidnapped.

He reaches over and gently took the ring in his small mouth, hoping he would never lose it again.

He then begins to run once more. The closer he gets to the entrance, the more his spirits rise. When he made it past the threshold and into the forest, his heart soars.

He doesn’t stop though, because he hears the vampires' voice. He saw Dimka come out of the trees, looking furious as he gave chase. Dimka is fast on his tail the entire time, but he just kept running and not looking back. Sabo kept his fluffy tail close to him so it wasn’t grabbed as he runs. Weaving through trees and shrubs, he's able to gain some distance by taking shortcuts under tree roots and holes around the area. He keeps running and running till he can’t any more, finding a small hole in a tree that was most likely meant for a squirrel. But he's able to somehow get his cat form to climb up the large tree and huddle inside anyways.

Panting, his four legs finally give out and he collapses. He's shaking from the adrenaline rush finally slowing down, causing his body to become heavy. A small smile graces his newfound cat features, because finally, _finally_ after several months of pain and misery.

He is free.

~~

Sabo stays in his cat form for another few weeks, only changing back to eat and drink, luckily after he put his ring back on, it would disappear like his clothes when he transforms. Through the weeks, he works on getting further and further away from that god forsaken cave. He has tried different forms to travel, but he decides to stay as a cat since they are fast and small. Sabo might despise being a vampire, but at least this ability has its perks.

Nearing the edge of a forest, he comes across human village for the first time. He's nervous as he walks along the streets, avoiding people the best he could so that he doesn't get stepped on. At some point he stops in an ally to watch everyone stroll by. He watches children with their parents and other family members, making his heart ache. Sabo misses his brothers, he wants nothing more than to run home to them. But he’s changed, he isn’t human anymore but a monster.

Blinking away his tears, he shakes his head and turns to walk deeper in the ally. He looks down as he walks, saddened by the fact he is alone. If he ever saw his brothers again, they would probably hate what he’s become. _Especially_ Ace since a vampire is what killed his parents in the first place. Luffy might not hate him, he only wanted to fight vampires because Ace and Sabo wanted to.

But he doesn’t want to risk it.

Showing them the monster he is now.

Turning a corner, he comes across a girl with unkempt orange hair. She's being cornered by a larger man that looks like some kind of baker-- since he was holding a rolling pin-- and he noticed the girl was clutching a loaf of bread.

“This is the last time you steal from me, girl.” The man says, lifting his arm with the pin to strike her. But Sabo reacts first and runs over, biting the man’s leg. The guy howls in pain, kicking Sabo off him. But the girl takes this chance to lunge forward, grabbing Sabo and running in the other direction away from the baker. She ran down the street, holding Sabo and the bread close to her chest. Looking up at the girl, he wonders why she bothered taking the time to pick him up and run off. To her he just seemed like a normal cat so why?

She ran to the outskirts of the town, to small shack that she walked into. It wasn’t much other than an old tattered bed with a small lantern next to it, other than that there wasn’t anything else. She stumbles over to the bed, sitting down and putting the bread next to her, setting Sabo down in her lap.

“Thank you for saving me… if it wasn’t for you biting that man I wouldn’t have gotten away.” She smiled a little, gently petting Sabo on his head. He let her since this was the first real interaction he’s had in a while, so it felt kinda nice of her to do this. Sabo knew he wouldn’t be able to stay long, once she found out what he really was she would be terrified of him. But for now he’ll be a little selfish and take in the warmth coming from her.

He lets out a small meow, not wanting to give away that he can talk. This causes her to giggle a little before she stops petting him. Picking up the bread, she breaks off a small piece and holds it in front of him.

“Here, you deserve a treat to..” Sabo looks at the piece of bread, frowning internally because he knows she needs it more than he does. But he doesn’t want to make her upset by not taking it, so he sucks it up and takes the small piece from her. She lets out a small giggle before she beginning to eat the rest of the bread for herself.

“My names Koala.. do you have a home, kitty?” The girl, Koala, asked with a small tilt of her head. Sabo freezes for a moment, before slowly shaking his head no. “Why don’t you stay with me? It gets pretty lonely here since I don’t have any family..”

He knows it's wrong, but he wants to stay here a little while longer. Help this girl through her struggles even if it means she might figure out the truth of what he is. But maybe, just maybe, he could have a real friend that will accept who he is now.

He can’t help but nod his head quickly in agreement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok um wow, I did not expect this to really get so much positive feedback. Thank you so much to everyone who commented, like all those comments really pushed me to start posting more of this! (I wanted to respond to them all, but the more I got, the more I figured there was only so much I could possibly say) The long comments, and even the short comments, honestly really made my day when I saw them.
> 
> Which is why I wanted to clear a few things up.
> 
> This story, was written with the intent to never see the light of day. I have many random One Piece stories written, unfinished, in my folders just sitting there. This is one of my favorites I have written, because the ideas just kept flowing.
> 
> So please, please forgive me if some thing seem off, inconsistent, or a little out of place. I'll try my best to keep things completely consistent in regards to the plot of the story. But just a warning incase something slips lmao. And really big thanks to Eir for wanting to edit and beta, they're helping a lot with this!
> 
> That being said, I will try to update every Friday or Saturday!! So keep an eye out! 
> 
> Thank you again for all the positive feedback and comments, and I'll see you next week!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oi!  
> Its the beta-reader/editor here! M'name's Eir. Just wanted to apologize for the late update 😅😅😅

Sabo learns that Koala is an extremely ambitious girl. When she puts her mind to something she will _always_ do it to the best of her abilities. With each passing day he spends with her, he grows more attached and determined to keep her safe. Her being his first friend in a long time, he wants to protect her no matter the cost.

He tries his best to help her in any way he could as well. At night, he'll go hunting and bring her rabbits or even some birds to cook and eat. Luckily she doesn’t seem to question it, as long as he comes home in the end. More than once Sabo gets tempted to show himself to her, to tell her what he really is. But he is scared that she'll turn him away once she finds out, or maybe even call any hunters that might be nearby. So he never says a word.

“Ne kitty.. you must be really good at hunting huh.” Koala says, while roasting a rabbit over the fire that was also trying to keep her warm. Sabo's able to steal a long sweater for her to wear. _He_ might not be getting cold due to the fur but she doesn’t have any. He's still in the process of hunting for a blanket to steal for her, not wanting the girl to get sick due to the upcoming winter. 

Sabo just gives a nod, resting his head against her knee as she gently pets his side.

“Well thank you… you’ve helped me a lot..” He gives her a soft meow as a response. After she's finished cooking the rabbit, she gives him some before eating it herself. Boy is Sabo glad he can still eat normal food, he loves food way too much to give that up. Once he's finished eating, Sabo keeps an eye on the surrounding area to make sure no bears or boars come out. But nothing does and Koala's able to continue eating without any interruptions.

Cleaning up her mess and putting out the fire, she bends down and picks Sabo up into her arms.

“Let’s go get some rest. I wanna be up early to train tomorrow.. gotta keep getting stronger.” She says with a determined glint in her eyes. Sabo nodds as she carries him inside so they could head to bed.

~~

An hour before sunrise, Sabo leaves the small hut to go hunting for breakfast. When he hunts, he transforms back so that it’s easier to gain more catches and prey. While out in the forest he also tries to transform into other animals as practice, even attempting to make himself look older. But he only does this for a little bit before resuming his hunt to get back to his slightly older friend. Since he only recently learned that Koala was a year older than him.

Walking back to the hut, he glances down at the three rabbits he caught. These can be good for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the girl since he fed the day before. Sabo gets back to the hut and notices that other scents are lingering around that hadn't been there before.

And they aren’t scents of animals.

Getting a little concerned he walks over to the door, seeing that its ajar. Sabo _knows_ he closed it tightly before he left.

Opening the door he notices the room is trashed, what little belongings Koala owned scattered all over the place. The scent of other vampires is strong here, making Sabo’s blood run cold. Dropping the dead rabbits, he runs back towards the forest, following the scents the as best he can. He's still new to this so it was a little hard.

He glances around as he ran, hoping to catch sight of either Koala or her captors. He skids to a stop when he hears shouting to his left, the shouting sounding like the girl that'd been taking care of him for a while now. Running in that direction, the shouting starts to get louder and louder. He hides behind a tree next to a small clearing where two adult vampires were standing over a tied up Koala.

“This was easy as hell. No one will notice her missing since she’s a pathetic orphan, and we get a new plaything.” One of them says with a laugh, making the other laugh alongside him. Sabo’s eyes narrow at the two men, noting that they somehow haven’t noticed his scent just yet. While he's stronger than if he was human, Sabo knows he won’t be able to take on two adult vampires. So he has to think of some way to get Koala away from here safely and away from those monsters.

Wracking his brains for a minute, he notices that the two were starting a small fire, probably deciding to camp there for a while before moving out. Their backs were turned away from the still struggling Koala because of this.

Taking this chance, he changes into a mouse and heads around to where they tied her up to a tree. Once close enough, he turns into a cat so he could easily scratch up the rope. She notices him and goes to say something but with a quick shake of his head she quickly shuts her mouth. Carefully cutting the rope with his claws, it fell to the ground with a thud. Sadly this notifies the two adult vampires and their heads snap over to the sound.

“Oi! What the hell do you think you’re doing!?” One of them yelled, quickly jumping to his feet.

“Crap!” Sabo yelled, quickly transforming back into his human form and picking Koala up into his arms.

“W-What…!?” She yells, obviously shaken at Sabo’s sudden transformation. But she doesn’t have time to ask questions as Sabo takes off running away from the adults.

“A vampire kid!? Get back here you little bastard!” The two adults give chase, and Sabo can only hope to lose them in the thick forest.

“Wait hold up you’re the cat!?” Koala yelled, squirming in his arms as he holds her tighter to make sure she doesn’t fall.

“Yes I’ll explain later but right now I need to get you away from those two vampires!” He yells, risking a glance to see that his small size was making him quicker, even with Koala weighing him down slightly.

“But you have fangs too! So you’re one of them!” Sabo bites the inside of his lip, forcing himself to not make a comment and only focused on running. Once he thinks they're a good distance away, he finds a cave and runs inside, gently setting her down near the wall.

“This should be far enough.. Unless they’re determined, I don’t think they’ll come this far.” Sabo explaines as he looked at the entrance just to make sure. He then looks back at her and frowns, seeing she was backing away from him slowly. His shoulders sag as he realizes she was probably scared of him now.

“So you were a vampire the entire time..you tricked me!” She yelled, pointing a finger at him.

“I didn’t trick you…”

“Yea right! I bet you were waiting for the perfect moment to drink from me weren’t you!?”

“I will never drink from a human EVER!!” Sabo’s outburst causes Koala to jump. She stares at him in shock, not knowing what to do now.

“B-But don’t vampires need to drink blood to live..?” She asks softly, not wanting to anger Sabo anymore than he probably was. He takes a deep breath and looks away.

“Yes they do. But I learned vampires can just drink from animals and it’ll be just fine.. I-I… I was a human not too long ago to you know…” He muttered, rubbing his left arm lightly. His scars itching from the reminder of that place.

“You… were..? H-How old are you?” She asked, her hands slowly going to rest at her sides.

“I’m only 10… Just like you I was.. I was kidnapped by a crazy vampire that was obsessed with breaking the weak.. his target being children. His last resort was to.. to turn me into a vampire. Even though that’s against an unspoken law between our two races.. I didn’t mean to lie to you, but I knew that if you knew I was a monster, you wouldn’t want to be my friend..” He wasn’t looking at her at this point, to scared to see what was going on in her eyes.

It was silent for a couple of moment, the only sounds were those of the nature outside the cave. He hears her then move and make her way close to him. Standing still, he keeps his eyes trained on the ground and sees her feet as she stands in front of him. Suddenly he feels a hand on his head, gently petting him.

“I… don’t think you’re a monster. I’m sorry I reacted like that earlier, I was just startled is all. Now that I know you’re actually a person… I think it would be nice to actually be real friends don’t you think?” Koala explains softly, causing Sabo’s eyes to widen. He slowly looks up at the human girl, seeing she has a soft smile on her face as her eyes only show sincerity. His eyes water but he refuses to let the tears fall. Nodding, Sabo smiles back at her.

“That’d be great.. yes.” He said, and they both laugh a little as she retracts her hand from his head, holding it out to him.

“Well then.. It’s nice to meet you, my name is Koala!” She says with a grin, and he can’t help but grin back and take her hand.

“Sabo. My name is Sabo, and it’s a pleasure to meet you as well, Koala.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright everyone, after this will be a time skip! So fair warning!
> 
> On the second chapter, someone commented about how it would be interesting to see Ace and Luffy's perspective after Sabo was kicked out. And because of this comment it got me thinking, so I might be making a one shot series of the in-betweens of this story!
> 
> Certain interactions, certain events, some details about what happened during the time skip. It's still up in the air right now since I never truly thought of it, but I think it would be a good addition since we only get slight details of what happen in the time skip. This will probably be a project for after I finish this. Since I'm still not really sure how long this story will be just yet lmao.
> 
> Well then thank you so much for reading and the love I'm getting for this fic, and I'll see you all next week!!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 10 years later, Sabo and Koala run an organization where humans and vampires work together to stop vampires from hunting down and preying against children.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Late chapter Courtesy of I, the beat-reader/editor. Sorry

Sabo walks down the hall, his heeled boots making soft clicking noises as he moves. Looking over the paperwork in his hand, he lets out a small hum while reading through it. Within the last ten years, Sabo and Koala have worked together to form an organization that attempts to keep vampires from kidnapping children and turning them. While it'd hard work, he and Koala were able to renovate an abandoned building in the middle of the woods as their base of operation.

It takes a while to kick off, because a technically 12 year old and a 13 year old running a mass organization was something no one had ever heard of. But slowly they gain their footing after finding the building, gaining allies one after another that were somehow willing to follow orders of someone who was much younger than them. Humans and vampires both joined in order to stop the threat against the human children some vampires became. And with Sabo as their leader, being a victim himself, they follow him without a second thought. They’ve taken down multiple vampires that prey against children.

If they ever find a child turned vampire, then they take them back to HQ and to one of the building they had to build from scratch. It was a sort of dorm that housed vampire children, to help them deal with their new life. Along with the fact they built classrooms to give the children a proper education about human and vampire history. There was also a class that would help the vampire children with their abilities.

With his transformation, he makes himself look older with each passing year. Making it seem like he was growing up without it actually happening to his real self. But it was nice to know his ability made him look like what he would that given year as if he was human. So right now he looks like a tall 20 year old male, instead of a 10 year old child. He's lucky he could keep his transformations up constantly, not having to put them down unless he wants to.

“Sabo there you are!” He hears, turning around he sees Koala running over to him, a pout on her face.

“Ah Koala, I was heading to the information room to drop off these reports I finishes organizing. Did you need me for something?” He asks, turning fully to look at her now.

Koala looks much better than she did when they first met. She now looked like a beautiful women as she’s grown, a huge difference from when she use to look like a mess while living on the streets.

“Yeah we need to have a meeting. Some of our informants have come back with new information on that vampire we’ve been trying to track down.” She explains, causing him to hum and nod.

“Alright lets go, have you gathered all the other officers?” He asks, following her down the hall to the meeting room. He'll drop the reports off after the meeting.

“Yes, those who are here are already gathering in the meeting hall.”

“Perfect.” They head towards the meeting room in silence after that. This is a vampire they have been trying to track for weeks now and they finally have a lead. This one has left multiple children either drained dry or turned and on the brink of death. He doesn’t care how much pain he brought as long as he has fun with his prey. It makes Sabo sick.

Getting to the hall, he opens the doors and sees all his high ranking officers sitting at the large round table in the middle of the room. The officers consisted of both vampires and humans. The vampires being Betty, Karasu, Ivankov, and Inazuma. While the humans consisted of Smoker and Tashigi, both former hunters, Law and his father figure Rosinante, who they called Corazon for some reason. Sabo never questions it.

“Took you long enough.” Smoker says through his cigars, causing Sabo to laugh a little.

“Sorry, I was on my way to drop off some reports in the other direction so Koala had to search for me.” Sabo explains, walking inside and over to the table with Koala.

“It’s alright Sabo-boy. Now that you’re here we can begin the meeting.” Ivankov says from across the table.

“That’s right. Now Koala gave me a brief explanation of the situation already, does anyone have any other input on the man we’re tracking?” He asks, Corazon raised his hand.

“We got a general description from one of his victims that woke up this morning after being asleep for two weeks. Before this the children have been to scared, but this young boy was very eager to describe the man.” Corazon explained, causing Sabo to nod.

“What did the boy say?”

“Tall man, dirty blond hair, with stubble on his chin. The boy said his eyes looked like a mix of green and orange or something. Kinda odd but not uncommon.” Corazon explained and Sabo hummed a little.

A vampires eyes usually change color upon turning, but not by much. Usually they’re eyes grow a brighter color of their original eye color, or a different color entirely. So it was rare for a vampires eyes to be that type of mix. Sabo’s personally became ice blue after he was turned, not that he noticed till Koala pointed it out to him that his eyes were a pretty color. He kinda missed his darker blue color, but it’s not like he hated his eyes now either.

“What’s the last known location of the man?” He saw everyone cringe a little.

“That’s the thing.. his last known location was hunter territory. More specifically, Whitebeards.” Sabo couldn’t help but cringe as well.

The Whitebeards weren’t bad people, on the contrary they were amazing. The man himself treats those in his branch as his sons and daughters. So they were technically a big happy hunter family. They weren’t known to just kill vampires without reason, but there have been a few cases where a low ranking member sees a vampire and just kills them. They were known to hate vampires like most other humans, but if you mess with their family you’re basically screwed. So most vampires steer clear of that area entirely.

“That’s complicated.. I’m amazed the Whitebeards haven’t noticed the man yet.” Sabo says, looking a little confused.

“Apparently he only got there recently and hasn’t made a move on any of the villagers children. But if we wait any longer we could lose this man again for who knows how long.” Tashigi explains with a frown, causing the others around the table to nod.

“We need someone who can get in, kill the man, and get out before the Whitebeards notice something is wrong..” Koala mutters, her eyes slowly drifting towards Sabo.

“So basically, with my ability I’m the best for the operation. I can get into the area unnoticed by becoming an animal, along with getting out as quickly as possible as soon as I kill the man. Sound about right, Koala?” He asks as she nods a little.

“Yes.. but… You have to be careful, Sabo. We all know you try your best to be mature and strong but..”

“You’re still just a kid, Sabo-boy. Transformed or not you still a 10 year old boy. This man has left many victims, more than our previous targets.” Ivankov said and he just sighs, but smiles up at everyone.

“Thank you for your concern, I mean it. I know it must be hard to follow the orders of a glorified ten year old, but it means a lot to me.” He said with a large genuine smile. He was lucky to have officers that respect him and his past, not letting it hinder how they see him.

“Tsk just don’t do anything stupid.” Smoker said with a huff, blowing out some smoke as he did so.

“Aw are you worried about me Smokey?~”

“As if! You stupid vampire brat!” Sabo can’t help but laugh at the man.

“I’ll set out for that territory in an hour. Is there anything else to report?”

“Yes, the classes for the children have been going smoothly, we had a small incident with a little girls mind reading ability just before the meeting. But we were able to get it under control.” Inazuma explained, a wine glass ever present in his hand.

“She heard something she wasn’t supposed to?”

“Shachi was having dirty thoughts about a girl he saw in town.” Law explains with a small scowl on his face.

“… Ew. Ok lets be extra careful to make sure that DOESN’T happen again hm?”

“I put him on paperwork for the next two weeks and told him if he ever had a dirty thought again, do it in the other buildings besides the doctor office. Fuckin moron..”

“Thanks Law. Remind them they have to be mindful of vampires abilities, cuz you never know what they’re gonna get.” This gains a small nod and a grunt as a response. After that the meeting continues. Going over the supplies they had or needed, along with going over reports of those who just came back from other missions. Once the meeting is over and everyone's dismissed, Sabo walks out to get ready for his mission.

“Sabo-ya.” He looks over to see Law waiting outside the meeting room.

“Law, is something wrong?” He asks, giving the older man a questioning look.

“I wanted to see if you’re alright. Since we haven’t found _him_ yet.” Law explains as Sabo stiffens a little. Giving a soft sigh, he smiles a little at Law.

“Yea I’m alright. I know it’s not going to be easy to find that man, but I know we will..” Sabo will find that bastard Dimka sooner or later, and he will put an end to that man for what he did to him. Law gave a small nod, eyeing him slightly.

“Alright, and you know you don’t always have to be like that while home. You know we all accept you as you are.” Law said simply before he walked down the hall and away from Sabo. Sabo smiles softly at the statement and starts walking down the hall, getting a warm feeling.

Sabo knows that everyone here won’t make fun of him, or even question him if he walks around as his normal small self. But this form made him feel better about things. Gives him a sense of what he could have become if his life wasn’t ripped out from under him. Maybe when he gets home he’ll drop his transformation and go play with the other kids. Help them through their own hard times.

Once he got to his room, he walked inside to gather his supplies. It wasn’t much, mostly his pipe and gloves that he needed to grab. So within minutes he was prepared and making his way to the main entrance of the building. At the entrance he sees Koala, Law, and Corazon waiting for him.

“Heh here to see me off?” He asks, smiling at his friends. Koala huffs and punches his arm lightly. Which with her that wasn’t light in the slightest bit but it was the thought that counts.

“Of course you dumbass. You rarely go on missions so we wanted to see you out.” Koala said with a pout.

“She’s right, do try to be careful alright? Try not to get seen by those hunters.” Corazon explained, patting him on the shoulder lightly.

“I’ll be careful I promise. If I get hurt during the fight I will come straight to Law as soon as I get back, sound good?”

“You better. Cuz if I hear you were hurt and didn’t come see me I will hunt you down.” Law said with a very creepy smirk.

“And that is why no one ever likes going to you but we love you anyways.” Sabo said with a smirk and Law tried to punch him. He jumped away with a laugh before walking towards the forest.

“I’ll fuckin dissect you when you come back!!”

“I’ll hold you to that! C’ya later!~” He heard Law curse at him, but he just smirked and walked into the forest.

After crossing the threshold of the forest he turned into a mountain cat and starts his journey to Whitebeards territory.

~~

It takes Sabo about a day to get to Whitebeards territory with few breaks. Luckily for him the few hunters at the boarder don’t seem to care about a mountain cat with a pipe strapped to its back crossing over. He hears one of them mutter something about ‘delivery animals’ and how they’re getting more and more weird. That confuses him but he decides to ignore it in favor of starting his search. Though he _did_ wonder how this vampire was able to get into the territory unnoticed.

He sniffs around, hoping his heightened senses will pick up the vampires scent. It took him a while to get used to his new senses when he was first turned, but now that he's mastered them for the most part and they helped him greatly. Picking up a scent, he quickly runs in the direction it was coming from. The closer he gets, the stronger the scent grew, while he also slowly started to hear talking and what sounds like whimpering.

Not liking what he was hearing, he runs faster till he gets to a small clearing surrounded by trees. There he sees the vampire matching the description he had, but what he notices the most is the look on his face. A crazed expression that only happens when a vampire is starved. They haven’t had a victim in two weeks, so he must have not drank since.

He follows the man’s gaze till his eyes lock onto a small girl. She wears tattered clothes and has blond hair that was slightly matted and brown from dirt. But most of all she looks terrified.

Utterly scared.

The creature soon lunges at the girl, ready to drink her dry, but Sabo's quick to transform to his older self and intercept the vampire. Quickly drawing his pipe, he swings it in a harsh arc, connecting with the crazed man’s head and sending him flying into a tree. Seeing the vampire struggling to get up, he risks turning to the girl with a small smile.

“Are you alright? Are you hurt?” He asks, kneeling down in front of her. Somehow, she notices he's a vampire because she backs away further, her terror only growing. “Hey hey" The blonde starts, raising his hands in a placating manner. "I’m not gonna hurt you don’t worry.. I’m here to protect you from that mean vampire over there.”

The girl calms down slightly, but tenses again when she pointed behind him.

“L-Lookout!!” She yells, and Sabo whips around with his pipe in the air, stopping the kick that's aimed for his head.

“How dare you interrupt me.. You should know not to mess with a vampire about to have his meal!” The vampire growls lowly, lifting its arm to deliver a punch, but he blocks it and kicks the man away again.

“You feeding off innocent children is wrong!” He snarls, swinging his pipe once more, grinning at the strength he now possess, a far cry from the weak kid he used to be. Focusing on the fight, he decides the girl needs to run away as fast as she can.

“Little girl! Do you know your way back to the village!?” He asks as he jumps over the feet that tries to trip him.

“Y-Yes I do.”

“Good! I need you to do me a big favor!” Sabo kicks the man away and the vampire slams into a tree. He turned to look at the girl. “I need you to be brave and run as fast as you can. All the way back to the village, you understand?”

“B-But… but what about you, mister…?” She asks quietly, terror and even worry for Sabo fills her eyes. It warmed his heart that she's concerned for him.

“Don’t worry about me. I will make sure this man will never touch you or any child ever again..” He explains as he turns his attention back to the vampire who was getting up. She goes to argue again as the vampire runs at her, but moves in the way and blocks the crazed man. “GO!!”

Without a second thought, she runs as fast as she can into the forest. After she's gone the older vampire looks furious, causing Sabo to smirk.

“Alright you freak, come at me.”

~~

Ace walks through the forest with Luffy and Thatch, doing their patrol through this section of the forest. A little girl was missing so they quickly geared up and went out to find her in hopes she was alright. There's been reporting’s of a vampire in the area stalking the village, but they can never find him after. They all hope that the vampire isn’t the one who took the child.

“Oi Luffy you see anything?” He asked his younger brother who was perched in a tree, a cross bow strapped to his back.

“Na not a thing. Ne Thatch can I have a snack?” Luffy asks, his brain ever focused on food and nothing else.

“In a little bit Luffy, we’ll take a break soon. For now we should keep searching.” Thatch explains and can't help but laugh as Luffy pouts. Ace rolls his eyes with a smile.

“You never change Lu..” He mutters, till he hears rustling that sounds like someone's running quickly. Ace motions at the other two and they glance over, both hearing the rustling as well. Getting ready for a potential attack, they watch in the direction the noise was coming from. Only for seconds later the little girl they were searching for comes running out of the bushes, slamming into Ace.

“Hey calm down you’re alright.” He said, kneeling down to look the girl over. She was dirty and had a few scrapes and bruises, but other than that she was perfectly fine.

“P-Please you h-have to help!” She said, shaking horribly.

“Help with what?” Luffy asked, jumping out of the tree to stand next to his older brother.

“T-The mister w-who saved me is f-fighting against the vampire that kidnapped me! P-Please you have to help him before he gets hurt!!” She explains quickly as tears form in her eyes. Ace frowns and looks over at Thatch and Luffy.

“Thatch, take the girl back to the village and find a doctor. Luffy you’re with me to find this vampire and guy.” Ace explains and the two nod. Thatch kneels down and picks the girl up gently.

“Come on let’s get you back to the village..” Thatch said, picking her up and standing. He glances at the two brothers for a moment, before nodding and running back to the village with the girl.

“Alright Luffy, let’s go kick some vampire ass.” Ace says with a smirk, causing Luffy to cheer as they both run in the direction of where the girl came from.


	6. Chapter 6

Sabo's glad the little girl listens and runs away, because this vampire is proving to be difficult. The thing about starved vampires is, the longer they go without blood, the more feral they get. Their moves get unpredictable and hectic, much more animal like. Which is why Sabo makes sure he never denies himself blood even if he hates the fact that he has to drink it.

Jumping away from the sharp claws of the feral vampire, he grips his pipe tightly as he thinks of what to do now. He has his dagger hidden in his boot, and this will likely be the best way to kill the man. Since the only way to really murder a vampire is either in the heart or the head. Or using the same moves a hunter does and killing with sea stone, a rare material that only a select few groups even have the chance of owning. This can harm and weaken a vampire, even nullifying their abilities. But seeing as blunt force isn’t working on the man’s skull, and he doesn't carry sea stone, ~~for obvious reasons~~ ,Sabo has to stab him. The only thing left was just to get the fucking idiot down long enough to do so.

Letting out a huff, he moves away from the kicks and scratches that keep trying to land but fail every time. Seeing an opening, he lunges forward and swings his pipe under the vampires feet to knock him down. Once down, the vampire tries to stand, but Sabo slams his foot onto his chest.

“Why did you do it? Why target innocent children.” He asks, and when the man tried to sit up, the blonde slams his foot down once more, harsher this time. But it only causes the vampire to let out a small laugh.

“Don’t you understand.. they’re easy prey.. along with having such fresh blood in their veins with them being so young..” The older vampire explains with a laugh which does nothing but make Sabo scowl and glare at him.

“You make me sick… ruining the lives of innocent children just for your own game. You either drain them dry and turn them, do you know the lives you have ruined because of that?”

“I don’t care, it’s fun watching their weak minds suffer through it all. To watch them squirm and beg for mercy.”

Sabo’s had enough, he lifts his foot up from the man’s chest before slamming it back down on his head to knock him out.

He takes a deep breath to calm his rage. Knowing there was never a chance with reasoning with the man. Lifting his foot off, he reaches into his boot and grabs his knife.

“Time to get to work..” 

~~

Ace and Luffy run as fast as they can to get to the location the little girl came from. It takes them a while, but through the bushes they see a man with his foot on the chest of what looked like a vampire. They seemed to be talking, but obviously the man in the top hat had enough as he lifted his foot and slammed it down on the vampires head. Ace notices the man take something out of his boot and motions Luffy to stay close to him.

Quietly coming out of the brush as he can, he points his crossbow at the man’s back.

“Hands up and turn around slowly.” He commands, causing the slightly taller man to still. Slowly lifting his hands, Ace sees that the blonde has a knife in his cupped in his palms, which are coated with splatters of blood. Ace notices the way Luffy eyes the slightly familiar top hat, but chooses to ignore it.

The man slowly starts to turn, beginning to face them, and once he is, both Ace and Luffy freeze.

This was someone they know well. Someone they know _very_ well.

Someone they haven’t seen in almost ten years.

The man before them is wearing almost the exact same outfit he had when they were kids, but much less tattered. He has much longer hair than before, and for some reason he has a large burn scar on his face. But the biggest difference are his eyes. Instead of the deep navy blue he had before, they were now the shade of ice.

Utterly cold.

“… Sabo..?” Luffy mutters, brows knitted as he stares at him. The man, _Sabo_ , smiles softly at them.

“You two have grown so much huh…” Sabo says with a sad smile, something in his eyes showing different emotions. Emotions that Ace can’t pinpoint.

“What the hell are you doing here? We haven’t seen you in ten years.” Ace asks, glaring at his brother but starting to lower his crossbow.

“You _did_ say you wanted me gone, Ace. So I respected your wishes.” Sabo explains, with a small sad smile.

Ace huffs, knowing the blonde was right. After Luffy ripped him a new one about that, they searched for him. But Sabo was very good at keeping his distance when he wanted to, so they never found him.

“You know I couldn’t be pissed off at you forever Sabo..” Ace mumbles, still glaring at his brother, but with less heat.

“Heh… I know.. but I didn’t want to step on your toes..” As the blonde explains, Ace notes something peculiar.

Two small fangs.

His eyes harden as he once more points his crossbow at Sabo. He should have known the moment he saw Sabo’s eyes. The moment he realized they'd lost their warmth.

“A-Ace what are you doing!?” Luffy yelled, looking between his brothers.

“He’s not human Luffy.” Ace said simply, causing his little brothers eyes to go wide.

“You don’t mean…”

“He’s a _vampire_.” Luffy’s jaw drops when Ace says it, still not wanting to believe. Even if he can now see the small fangs and different colored eyes.

“Sabo... But.. why? You wanted to be a hunter right?” Luffy asks, eyeing his brother sadly. Sabo looks down, a small frown on his face.

“I did.. but people change Luffy. Wither you want them to or not, it happens.” Sabo explains, and Ace could have sworn he heard a hint of sadness but he ignores it.

“You fuckin bastard.” Ace said, hardening his glare. Sabo looks around his age, so he must have been changed sometime this year. This made his blood boil, seeing his once brother become the very thing they all hated.

“As much as I would love to keep chatting.. I have to go.” Sabo says and started to lower his hands but Ace points his arrow at his chest.

“I don’t think so. You’re a vampire that invaded the Whitebeard territory. We’re fucking bringing you in. You’re lucky I won’t fucking kill you.” Ace spits with a slight growl.

Sabo smiles softly.

“You never change… But sorry I’m a very busy man. So for now, this is farewell.” Before Ace or Luffy could get another word in, Sabo reaches into his pocket and grabs something. The then threw it to the ground and it caused a large smoke screen to form. Cursing, he tries to reach forward to grab Sabo but was only able to grasp air. He hears something under him but wasn’t sure what.

Once the smoke finally cleared out, Ace noticed Sabo was gone.

“Damn it!” Ace yelled, stomping on the ground.

“Ace..” Luffy said and he glances over. He sees his little brother was pointing at something on the ground. Following his gaze, he looked at the vampire that was passed out moments before. But this time he had a knife embedded in his chest, right where his heart was. 

A lethal blow.

“....What the hell Sabo..”

~~

Sabo runs as fast as he can away from his brothers, having transformed back into a mountain cat. It hurt seeing them, seeing them so grown up and living the life they wanted. While Sabo is stuck with the illusion of being an adult. But at the same time he's happy, happy to see their lives weren’t screwed up like his was. Happy they could actually follow their childhood dreams.

Sabo wanted nothing more than to stay there, talk and just be with his brothers. But Sabo knew better, he knew that they were on different sides now. Despite Sabo and his intentions being good, he knew that normally humans and vampires were enemies. No matter their bonds. The humans working with him were different, their mindsets not as narrow as most others.

Letting out a shaky breath he runs faster out of Whitebeards territory. All he wanted to do was go home.

~~

The moment he crossed the trees lining his home Sabo transformed back, but this time just went to his normal, ten year old form. Walking inside, he rests his now much taller pipe against the wall and started to walk with his head down, his top hat casting a shadow over his eyes. He’ll do his report later, because all he wanted to do right now was sleep.

“Sabo…?” He heard, but just kept walking. Footsteps quickly caught up with him, and he just wished Koala would leave him alone just this once..

“Koala… I… I just want to go sleep ok..?” His now much higher voice muttered, but when he was picked up off the ground he struggles. “K-Koala!”

“What happened.” He flinched at those words. Because that was something he really didn’t want to explain. Koala knows about his brothers, he told her everything about them, but he still didn’t want to talk about it. But he knew it would help.

“… Can we talk about this in my room please..” He asked quietly. She nodded and started to walk, not bothering to put him down. He was used to her carrying him around when he was like this. She grew the habit when he refused to talk about a rather hard mission or something was bugging him. Or just to comfort him in general.

Once they got to his room, she opens the door and walked inside. Using her foot to close the door, Koala walks towards the bed and gently at him down on it where he pulls his knees to his chest. She frowns, sitting down next to him and placing a hand on his back. A small gesture saying ‘it’s alright take your time’.

“… I saw them.. My.. my brothers. They were there, they work for the Whitebeards.. They were able to follow their dreams and become hunters..” Sabo explains softly, hugging his knees tighter.

“Sabo…”

“It just.. it hurts. Knowing that they’ll grow, mature.. While here I am. Stuck as a ten year old for the rest of my life, till I die probably hundreds of years from now. I won’t be able to mature.. to have a normal life. Transformation be damned, that’s just an illusion to make me feel better.. I know I’m doing good because of our cause, but… It just hurts so much…” He explains, holding his head tightly. He knows grieving over the life he could have had was stupid, but he couldn’t help it. Sabo wants to grow up with his brothers, but even that’s just a fleeted dream now.

“Sabo… Sabo look at me.” Koala says softly, using a voice he knows all too well. Koala's like an older sister to him, and with his mindset usually stuck as a ten year old, he was really lucky to have her as a best friend. Sabo slowly looked at her, tears forming but never falling.

“I know how you must feel… The life you could have had with them was ripped our right under your feet. But you can’t let that constantly burden you, what’s done is done and we can’t change the past no matter how hard we try. All you can do now is push forward and fight with everything you have. You say you haven’t matured, and never will because of what your body is stuck at. But that’s not true.” She explains, taking his hat off and gently setting a hand on top of his head.

“You’re very mature, even if you haven’t gotten a chance to grow because of getting turned, you’re always growing mentally. Yes you have your moments of acting like a child because you can’t help it. But from what I see, you’re smart, cunning, sarcastic as all hell, kind.. I’ve been with you for ten years Sabo. You might not notice it, but I have. You’ve grown so much despite the setbacks..”

Sabo stared at her, biting his lip hard. This wasn’t the first time they had this type of conversation regarding his age and mentality. But it never ceases to amaze Sabo that Koala always knows the right things to say. Always there when he needs a shoulder to lean on, to talk to. He lunged forward and hugged her tightly, gripping her shirt as he hides his face in her chest. She wraps her arms around his small figure, holding him close.

“Thank you…” He mutters causing her to give off a small laugh. Gently rubbing his back as she holds him. Sabo's lucky to have a friend like Koala to act as his anchor during these times.

“Any time Sabo…”

~~

When Ace and Luffy got back to HQ, they were quiet. They get questioned by multiple people, but they were either ignored or got yelled at by Ace. Luffy would have to go back to his branch soon, but wanted to stay with Ace for a while.

Luffy and his gang made up a different group of hunters. They were an independent group that worked alongside the Whitebeards as allies. This means his group will only ever take orders from him regarding missions. It was a weird relationship between the two groups but they made it work.

Once they get to the dorms and to Ace’s room, Ace opens the door and stomped inside with Luffy at his tail to close the door behind them.

“I can’t believe this… That fucker decided he wanted to be a fuckin vampire and betray his own kind. Recently to! He looks my age!” Ace yelled before punching the wall. Luffy sat on Ace’s bed in silence, looking down at his hands.

“Why would he do that… its always been our dream to become hunters together… so why..” Luffy asked quietly, upset that the first time he’s seeing Sabo after so long was as an enemy.

“Like he said Lu, people change. The next time we see him and he crosses us, we have to fight him. It’s our job.” Ace explained, but even saying it left a bitter taste in his mouth. Despite Ace still being furious with Sabo, that was still his brother. So the idea of having to fight or even kill him… he hated it. If he knew kicking Sabo out all those years ago would lead to this, maybe he wouldn’t have even if it almost got them killed more than once.

“I don’t want to fight Sabo.. What if we just talk to him? Ask him why?” Luffy looked up at Ace with hopeful eyes. Ace’s anger slowly left him, knowing it wasn’t good for his little brother in this situation.

“I doubt he would want to talk to us Luffy. We don’t even know why he was in our area to begin with. Or why he killed that vampire.”

“But.. didn’t that little girl say she was saved from a vampire by a man? What if that was Sabo and all he wanted to do was help that little girl??” Luffy said hopefully.

“Maybe.. but that doesn’t explain why he was here or why he killed that bastard. The next time he’s in our area, he might not get so lucky.” Luffy deflates at that. “Come on Lu.. why don’t we go and get something to eat? I’m sure Thatch won’t mind feeding you.”

Luffy instantly perked up at the mention of food and nodded quickly. Ace smiles and leaves his bedroom to take Luffy to the dining hall. Luffy ran ahead and Ace just chuckled and shook his head at his little brothers antics.

Though his thoughts drifted back to his blond brother. When they were kids, Sabo voiced his dislike for vampires a decent amount when the subject arose. While never personally attacked, he didn’t like how they would attack innocent people, which is why Sabo wanted to become a hunter. But now he became what he disliked the most, so what changed to make Sabo want to be a vampire? Ace just shook his head, knowing he wouldn’t get anywhere with questioning someone who wasn’t near him.

Once getting to the dining hall, Luffy ran up to the counter and bounced happily.

“Thatch Thatch! Can we have food!?” He called out, hoping the other man was in the kitchen. Luckily after he took care of the little girl, Thatch made it to the kitchen to begin lunch. Probably knowing that Ace and Luffy would be wanting food upon return.

“Sure thing kiddo! Just sit tight!” Thatch said as he was cooking.

“Hey Thatch, how was the little girl?” Ace asks, leaning against the counter.

“Shaken up but other than that she was alright. She explains the vampire was about to drink from her but a man saved her.” Thatch elaborated as he cooked.

“Did she describe the man at all?”

“Um.. she only said he was wearing a top hat. It seemed she was hiding something but as long as she’s alright then its fine. What about on your end, you went to help the guy right?” Thatch glances over at the two brothers, seeing that they were a little tense.

“Yea we uh.. we did. When we got there the fight was already over. It turns out another vampire saved her.” Ace mutters, glancing away from Thatch.

“And..?” Ace sighs, rubbing his neck.

“We knew him. When he was human. We questioned him but he threw a smoke bomb and ran. But killed the other vampire before making his escape.” Ace explains and this causes Thatch to frown.

“I’m sorry to hear that. Did he tell you why he turned?” He asks and the two shook their heads.

“No. But it was recently since he’s my age. The bastard..”

“He was our brother.” Luffy states simply, now staring at the counter.

“Luffy!”

“What? What’s the point in hiding it, Ace? Besides he wasn’t here for a fight, but to save that little girl. His reasons for being here are probably because of that vampire he killed.” Ace hates it when Luffy was right. Since it was rare to begin with, but Luffy did have a point.

“He has a point.. so.. It was your brother who was the other vampire?”

“Yea.. I uh.. I kicked him out ten years ago after he almost got Luffy killed.. I didn’t think he’s turn around and become a vampire.. He used to hate them.” Ace says while biting his lip. Back then he expected his brother to come back after a month when they couldn’t find him, but when he didn’t Ace truly thought he’s never see Sabo again.

“Well… maybe there is more to the story than you think?” Thatch asks and Ace looked at him.

“What do you mean?”

“All I’m saying is that you see one thing, but it could be the other. You won’t know until you talk to him.” Thatch explains as he put big plates of food on the counter for the brothers. “Alright now eat up you two! We gotta put in the report after this.”

The two brothers instantly dig into their food, temporarily forgetting about their problems.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright a little early update cuz, A: Didn't update on Friday last week, and B: I'm getting a snowstorm and not sure if I'll lose power! SO I decided to give ya'll an early update!
> 
> I hope you guys liked the reunion, I was really nervous on this lol.


	7. Chapter 7

Its a couple of weeks after his last mission, and there isn’t much going on at the base. But as Sabo gets dressed, there's a knock at his door. He's in his normal form since all of his clothes are designed for children and typically his clothes grow when he transforms so it doesn’t really matter _what_ he wears. Grabbing his top hat he walks over to the door and opens it. On the other side is Koala, her face serious.

“Morning Koala. What’s wrong?” He asks, head tilted and confusion etched over his expression.

“Some of our scouts came back from their mission, and Sabo. It’s not good, we have to hurry to the meeting room.” She reaches down and picks him up, hurrying to their meeting place.

“I _can_ walk you know, and what did they find?” He questions, trying to get out of her grasp but not really caring either way.

“You’ll find out when we get there.” She says curtly and he just sighs, resigned to his fate. What could be such a big deal? Honestly Sabo's concerned. Its not often that he sees Koala so worked up. 

They get to the meeting room in record time. Koala takes him inside and everyone looks over. While they would usually snicker at him being carried while in his normal look, none of them did so this time.

And thats how Sabo knows its serious.

Koala walks over to their seats and sets him on the ground. He takes this moment to change into his older self, looking around the room with concerned eyes. Everyone seems tense and suddenly the blonde isn't sure he _wants_ to know whats going on. Slowly he takes his seat, resting his elbows on the table.

“Alright spill. What’s going on.” He demands, looking around the room for anyone to speak up. It's Smoker who starts off.

“Some of our scouts came back from a mission we assigned them a week ago. The one where they were to follow a certain vampires movements due to his.. _activities_. But with following him, they discovered something sickening..” The older man says, letting out a puff of smoke as he sighs.

“And what did they find?”

“They followed the vampire to a cave on the side of a large mountain. One of them tailed the man inside while the others waited outside. What our scout saw horrified him.”

If he wasn't concerned before, he certainly is now. "Let's cut all the theatrics and dramatic pauses." He can't see but knows that his eyes are dark. "The hell is going on here?"

Law is the one who continues, his monotone voice filled with disgust. 

“At the end of the cave was a large area. Inside it was a mass amount of vampires forming in groups, all around them were cages. Cages filled with children.”

Sabo’s blood runs cold at the words and he feels like he's going to be sick. “Don’t tell me…”

“The scout described it as almost like a club or a cult. A sick cult dedicated in the kidnapping and feeding off children. He even explained that there was an area off to the side that did not smell pleasant, I can only assume what’s in there…” Law explains, his face darkening as he glares at the table. Sabo takes a deep breath to calm his nerves before speaking.

“Did he say how many vampires there was?” He asks slowly, holding back the urge to dry retch.

“He said that if he could give an estimated guess.. more than at least 120 vampires were in that cave when he went. But that was only from what he could see from the small entrance he was at, so it could be more..” Law replies with a small shake of his head.

“We don’t have enough members to raid that cave. The biggest group we’re even taken on was a total of 50 max, but this is insane.. It would take all members to do this, but even then I’m sure we would be outnumbered. But we also can’t just leaves the children here alone without supervision.” Corazon adds, sighing as he rubs his face.

The man looks him in the eye, voice pleading, bordering on an almost plaintive whine. “Chief, what do we do?”

And there it is.

The question he’s always asked in these type of situations. They will always turn to him when need be and know he'll back them up no matter what. He knows that the idea going through his head is risky and _extremely_ suicidal.

But they need back up. _Trustworthy_ back up. People who will keep their word and not stab them in the back when the going gets though.

_I can't believe I'm thinking of this._

Oh he was going to regret it. He was already regretting it. The blonde closes his eyes, taking a deep breath.

“You’re right. We don’t have enough members on hand, and even if we _did_ manage to scrounge up everyone, we can’t just leave the children alone. But we also can’t raid the cave with minimal members." He pauses, looking around the table with a slow gaze. "So we need help." 

“What _kind_ of help?” Koala asks in a cautious drawl, eyeing Sabo like he's about to say something very stupid. Which, to be fair, he probably is.

“We need a group of people that will put aside our differences for a greater cause, people who just won’t outright attack vampires upon seeing them." Oh man, his crew is about to lose their _shit._ Sabo resists the urge to snicker. "People like the Whitebeards.”

Their jaws drop. Against his better judgement, he laughs. 

“You’re crazy.” Koala growls, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and despite the harsh treatment, he can't help but keep the charming grin on his face.

“So I’m told.”

“Sabo you want to ask a _Hunter_ group for help! No offence to you Smoker but do you know how suicidal that is!? Hunters can be dangerous and sometimes even _worse_ than vampires! Why do you think Smoker and Tashigi left their group?” Koala exclaims, baffled by her friend's insane idea.

“I know. I know better than _anyone_ that hunters can be pieces of shit. But the Whitebeards are a group that are also known for letting innocent vampires go." The blonde gave Smoker a pleading look, bottom lip poking out playfully. "Smokey back me up here.” Sabo says, still trapped in Koala's grasp.

“Yeah that’s right. It’s why most hunter groups hate the Whitebeards. Their methods are laid back and considered dangerous. In essence they let wild animals into civilization simply because it didn't bit for a short amount of time." Smoker inclines his head, letting them know he doesn't mean it offensively. He closes his eyes before sighing, seeming to come to a conclusion.

"I’ll be completely honest while it does sound stupid, I think it’s our best option. If they learn the situation, they probably will be willing to help no matter what.” Smoker admits and Sabo grins, glad the man actually agreed to his insane idea.

Koala groans, letting go of his collar and watching as Sabo plops down with a dull thud.

“Ok.. Ok. Say we do ask them for help. Who would go, and how would we do this?” She asks, looking at Sabo.

“Well. I think I would go, me being the leader and all.” Sabo replies with a shrug and she gives him a flat look.

“You’re crazy. _You_ , a vampire, will just walk up to their front door and what, knock?” She deapans, lips in a taut line.

“Yep that’s basically the plan.” He tells her with a large grin on his face. He saw her eye twitch in annoyance.

“I hate you, you know this right? You’re going to give me a heart attack one day.”

“Love you too Koala.”

He got a small smack on the head.

“Will you at least take one of our human members with you? I know you don’t want to leave this place without a higher up so I can’t come, but can’t you take Smoker or even Law?” She asks hopefully, making the blonde sigh.

“Honestly Koala, I think it would be best if I went alone. I know you’re concerned about me, but I’ll be alright I promise. The less people I bring the better." He lifts his hands, making small gestures. "Think about it, I could go with one of the humans and have a defense, meaning I don’t trust them not to attack.” He explains and she frowns, knowing where this was going.

“And if you went alone, knowing full well the dangers it could bring you, they would hear you out..” She mutters.

“Smart girl. That's exactly it. I want them to know that I _trust_ them. Enough that I would put my life on the line to do this. So don’t stress it Koala, I’ll be just fine.” He says with a smile, but he knows this won’t ease her worry. But it didn’t matter, this was something he needed to do. He stands up and looks around the table. “I’ll leave as soon as possible, we can’t ignore this cave any longer than we should. Hopefully the next time you see me, will be with some representatives from the Whitebeards. So for now, go back to your normal duties till I get back.”

The meeting's dismissed after that, only leaving Koala and Sabo standing in the room.

“Sabo… are you sure about this? What about… your brothers?” She asks softly, frowning at him.

“It’ll be alright Koala.. Even if I have to see them again, I have a job to do. I can’t just leave those children in that cave to suffer any longer, you know I can’t…” He explains and she sighs, a small smile coming to her lips.

“I know.. it’s just who you are.” She says and he smiles back. He walks over and hugs her, holding her close.

“I’ll be back before you know it. Hold down the fort for me okay?” He asks with a small laugh. Koala just huffs and hugs back tightly.

“You better.. Or I’ll kick your ass.” He couldn’t help but laugh more at that. Hopefully everything would be ok.

~~

 _Well this is a dumb idea_ , he thought as he eyes the entrance to the Whitebeards HQ from the forest. He's currently in his cat form, having left his pipe leaning against a tree. There were two guards out front, and a few patrolling the area. Hell one even stops and gives him a pat once they see a little cat near the bushes. That amuses Sabo to no end honestly. A vampire so close to their base and they don’t even know it.

Shaking his head he hides behind a tree and transforms into his older self. Adjusting his hat, ~~which luckily just disappears and reappears like the rest of this clothes~~ , he takes a deep breath. It was now or never honestly. Walking out from behind the trees, he makes his way over to the entrance and the two guards. The moment he's in their line of sight they tense, eyeing him warily. 

“Who are you?” One of them asks, a hand slowly reaching for his crossbow. But Sabo just puts his hands up to show he was unarmed.

“I would like to speak with Whitebeard.” He said simply with a small grin, making sure to flash his fangs. This made the guards draw their weapons quickly to point at him.

“What do you want with our pops?” The other asked, glaring at Sabo.

“I only wish to speak with him, nothing more. Before you attack me, why don’t you go tell him about this. Besides, I’m without a weapon and truly mean no harm.” Sabo says calmly, showing no signs of hostility. The two guards glance at each other for a moment before turning back to the vampire.

“I’ll go talk to Pops and my partner here'll pat you down to make sure you’re not lying about anything.” The guard says simply and ran inside as the other starts to pat Sabo down.

The process is over fairly quickly and the man backs away gaze narrowed. "I still don't trust you. One wrong step and it's over."

Sabo only laughs, tugging on his gloves playfully. _Oh my, this will be interesting._

~~

Whitebeard's in his office with Marco when there was a knock at the door. He glances at Marco who just shrugged, before turning his head to the door.

“Come in.” He says, and watches as the door opens to reveal one of his son’s who's on guard duty at the front gate.

“Pops we have a small… situation.” His son explains, causing Whitebeard to frown.

“Situation? Explain my son.”

“Well, a vampire just.. walks up to the front doors asking to speak with you. He’s alone and seemed unarmed, what do we do?” He asks and Whitebeard raises a brow.

“A vampire? He does know who we are right, yoi?” Marco asks and the other just only nods.

“Yea I’m sure he does. But all he said was that he wanted to talk to Pops..” Whitebeard gives a small sigh and looks at his sons.

“Marco, gather the commanders in the meeting room right away. My son, tell the vampire that his request has been granted and lead him to the meeting room, but do not let him out of your sight.” Both his son nod and walk out of the room to do their respected tasks.

He wonders what this vampire wants, what could be so important that he will risk his life like this. Walking right into hunters territory and without any weapons no less. Whitebeard just sighs and stands up from his desk, making his way out of his office and to the meeting room. When he enters, he saw that some commanders were already there. Luffy is sitting next to his brother, despite not being a commander, Ace makes his little brother tag along to the meetings sometimes if they seemed important enough. Luffy being a leader and ally to their group, it made sense.

Sitting down in his seat, he looks around the table. Marco must have caught most of them when they were eating or making their way out from lunch.

“Pops is what Marco said true?” Thatch asks with a frown, he only nods.

“What idiotic vampire would just walk into our territory and demand to see you? That’s suicidal.” Kingdew says with his arms crossed.

“Whoever it is, they have a big death wish.” Ace says with a shrug, leaning back in his chair.

“Now now my sons.. we will not judge till we hear his words. Remember, not every vampire is as bad as most.” Whitebeard explains and his sons slowly nods. Soon the rest of the commanders gathers in the room as they wait for the guards with the vampire. After a few minutes, there's a knock at the door.

“Pops, we brought the vampire!” They hear and some of the commanders tense a little.

“Bring him in.” He called out. Soon the door opens to show the two guards as they walked inside, leading a vampire that looked to be dressed like a noble with blond hair. No one notices how the two brothers tensed up.

“This is him, pops.” His son explains and Whitebeard nods.

“Thank you my son, you’re dismissed.” With that, the two guards smile and leave the room, closing the door. Leaving the vampire in a room full of people who would kill him within moments. It was tense, the vampire glancing around the room before his eyes land on Whitebeard. He gives a small smile as he reaches up and tips his top hat.

“Thank you for agreeing to talk to me. It’s a pleasure to meet you Whitebeard, my name’s Sabo.” The vampire, Sabo, explains politely.

“I must say, you piqued my curiosity due to coming to a hunter base alone and unarmed. Do you have a death wish?” Whitebeard asked simply, causing the young vampire to laugh.

“Maybe I do. But if I came with back up, I would seem as if I’m hiding behind them. I didn’t want that, I wanted to show you that I mean no harm and only wish to discuss business with you.” Sabo said simply, as Whitebeard raised a brow.

“Business? What exactly are you here for?” Whitebeard said, eyeing the boy. His previous smile was replaced with a serious look.

“My organization is in need of your help with a situation that we have just learned about.” Sabo said seriously.

“Your organization?”

“Yes, let me explain. A few of years ago my friend and I began an organization that searches, hunts, and puts down vampires that prey against children. There are many vampires in the world like this, so it’s obviously impossible to get every single one of them. But obviously sometimes.. we’re too late and they have either drained a child, or turned them. We try our best though..” Sabo explains, glancing down. Whitebeard couldn’t help but feel the man was talking from experience.

“That a brave goal. We ourselves have dealt with many vampires who target children. May I ask what you do with the children that are turned?” He asks, and Sabo just nods.

“We house them. Give them a safe environment to learn their new abilities. My officers, both human and vampire, help the children in any way they can. Be it with their education or helping train their new found abilities. A little girl recently picked up mind reading, that.. was a shit show if I’m being honest with you.” Sabo explained with a cringe. Whitebeard could only imagine the chaos that little girl caused.

“I see… that’s very kind of you, and to be able to work alongside humans without conflict is impressive.”

“We try our best.”

“Now what is this that you need help with?” Whitebeard asked and Sabo sighed, looking at the much taller man.

“Our scouts came back from a mission. They were tailing a vampire that had been kidnapping and draining children for a couple of month now. One of our scouts followed the man into a cave and… what he found wasn’t pretty.” Sabo said, his hands turning into fists. “He saw a large group of vampires gathering. It was not a small amount, over 120 vampires were gathering there. Along the walls…. Along the walls were cells, cells filled with children.”

The anger on all the commanders and Whitebeards faces would probably send a shiver down anyone’s spine.

“That’s horrible.” Izo said, Sabo only nodded.

“Trust me I know. No child should have to go through that…” Whitebeard noticed that, if it wasn’t for the fact the blond was wearing gloves, his nails would be digging into his skin. His eyes soften as he watches him.

“You sound like you’re speaking from experience.” He voices, causing the vampire to tense and glances away, before glancing over and Ace and Luffy with a sigh. Whitebeard wondered why he looked at the brothers.

“Yes just a little bit. Koala, my friend, was almost kidnapped when we first met many years ago. That was scary enough as it is, and I don’t want any other child to go through that.” Sabo explains. Whitebeard can tell the vampire is telling the truth, but also feels like he was hiding something.

“So you need our help because the vampires out number you, correct?” He asked and Sabo nodded.

“That’s right. While if I gathered all of my member from my branch, we could have a small fighting chance. That will leave the base and children wide open for attacks and no one to protect them. I can not and will not risk that. So that’s why I came here in hopes of getting your help.” Sabo says, standing straight with confidence. Whitebeard glances around the room at his commanders. Some were still glaring at the vampire, while others seem to be deep in though. Ace and Luffy were staring at the vampire, something in their eyes he couldn’t read.

“Would you allow me to talk it over with my commanders?”

“Of course, I can wait outside.” Whitebeard nodded at that and Sabo walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. He might be a vampire but Whitebeard knew the boy wouldn’t risk anything. There were children’s lives at stake and he knew it very well.

“Pops you believe him?” Kingdew asked, one of the commanders that was obviously against helping the vampire.

“I’m not sure. He seems sincere with his words and request, and if children’s lives are actually on the line, then I think it would be best to help him.” Whitebeard explained and Atoms, another that was against this, spoke up.

“But we can’t trust a vampire, Pops. This could be a big elaborate trap to get your head!”

“It’s not.” All heads turns towards Luffy who speaks up. He and Ace are both staring at the door, before Luffy turns and looks Whitebeard in the eyes.

“He isn’t lying. He’s telling the truth.” Luffy said simply.

“And how the hell would you know, kid?” Kingdew asks with a slight glare. Ace sighs and turns to face his hunter brother, glaring back.

“We know Sabo better than anyone in this room. I admit, Sabo’s a damn good liar, but we always know when he’s lying.” Ace says, everyone giving them confused looks.

“My son, how do you know him?” Whitebeard asks and Ace sighs a little, looking down at the table.

“He's our brother but something happened ten years ago and I kicked him out of the house. Then he just vanished. We didn’t even see him in our village anymore. But even after all this time, we can read him like a book. He’s being serious, though he was hiding something when you asked about his experience with this..” Ace replies carefully, obviously worried, glancing away from his hunter family.

“Sabo is really nice, we don’t know his reasons for becoming a vampire or the story behind how it happened, but we know he’s a good person…” Luffy says and Ace just nods.

“I see… well. If he is someone that you trust, then he must be telling the truth. We will help him with his cause to save those children. When he comes back I will ask what he’s hiding, but I will not push the subject.” Whitebeard said, leaving no room for argument from those who might still disagree to this. He looked over at the door.

“You may come back in now.” He calls out and seconds later the door opens. Sabo walks back inside and glances around. While he's hiding it well, Whitebeard can tell the boy is nervous. “We have decided to help you with your cause.”

Sabo’s shoulders relax at that, and he gives them a genuine smile.

“Thank you so much.” Sabo says, before glancing at his two brothers with a small smile.

“Tsk screw off. I’m still pissed off at you.” Ace said with a little huff and Sabo just laughs a little. Knowing Ace wasn't really mad, just frustrated.

“Never change…” He looks at Whitebeard. “I want to be able to do this mission as soon as possible. I don’t want to rush you, but children’s lives are at stake here.”

“Of course. I just have a simple question for you.” Sabo looks at him confused.

“What is it?”

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. But before when I asked if you had experience with this, you said your friend was almost kidnapped… I could tell that was the truth. But not the full truth.” Whitebeard explained carefully. Sabo was quiet for a moment, looking down so his top hat hide his eyes. His right arm lifted and gripped his left arm tightly.

“… I apologize for that. That subject is something I have a very hard time talking about so if it is ok for now, I would like to not talk about it.” Sabo said quietly, not lifting his head to look at anyone. Whitebeard hummed and nodded. Ace and Luffy were both frowning now, not liking the sound of that.

“That’s alright, I’m sorry if I brought back bad memories.” Whitebeard says, being truly sorry. Sabo caught on that and lifted his head to give the older man a small smile.

“It’s alright. If this mission goes well then maybe, I will explain. But right now my past is not of importance.” Sabo explained and Whitebeard merely inclines his head.

“Of course. Now regarding the mission, I will send a couple of commanders with you so that you can make a plan with them and your officers.”

“Sounds good. While it would usually just take me a day to get here and a day to get back. It will take longer with a group, so about two days at least with minimal breaks.” Sabo explains.

“I see. I will send four commanders with you if that’s alright.”

“That sounds perfect.” Whitebeard can tell the boy is beyond glad that this works out well. Which is understandable regarding the situation.

“Sabo.” All heads turned to Ace, who was staring at his brother. Sabo looks over and nods a little.

“Ace..”

“Is that why you were here a few weeks ago. Because that vampire was one of your target?” Ace asked, Sabo just nodded.

“Yes. He turns many children and when we finally got his location we took it. I took up the mission because, unlike my officers, I can get in and out unnoticed.” Sabo explains and Ace raises a brow.

“And how do you do that?” Ace asks.

“Just my vampire ability. It’s nothing to be concerned about.” Ace mutters that it kind of was but Sabo just ignors him. “Who will you be sending back with me?”

Whitebeard thinks for a moment as he glances around the room.

“I will be sending Marco, Thatch, Izo, and Ace. By extension I’m going to assume Luffy will tag along as well.” Whitebeard said and Luffy just nodded quickly.

“Why the hell do I have to go?” Ace asks, looking up at him.

“Because, it would be best to have someone on the team that is at least a little familiar with him. So I picked you.” Whitebeard explains and Ace only shakes his head.

“Fine.. Come on Lu we have to tell your squad.” Ace stands up and starts walking out, Luffy following close behind. They walk past Sabo without a second glance, but Ace brushes past Sabo's shoulder gently, till Luffy turns around and wraps his arms around the blond tightly.

“I’m glad to see you again Sabo..” He mutters, before letting go and quickly running after Ace. Sabo stands there frozen, and while most others didn't see, Whitebeard notices Sabo’s lips trembling a little in a small frown.

This is going to be an _interesting_ alliance.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Important note at the end. Please read it.

“Are we there yet?”

“No Lu, we’re not there yet.”

“How about now?”

“No.”

“And now?” Sabo's glad his patience for his brother never left, only growing with the amount of children he deals with daily. They left at noon yesterday, so they’ll either be at base by nightfall or tomorrow morning depending on the breaks they take. Usually Sabo will just run through the forest to get home as quick as possible, but he can’t with his little group of humans tagging along.

“Luffy. We’ll be there by tonight or tomorrow morning. After the meeting you can even play with the children if you’d like. I think they’d like you a lot.” Sabo says with a smile and Luffy grins back.

“Alright! Ne, Thatch I’m hungry!!” Luffy yells out, jumping over to the chef. Now that Sabo thinks about it, he was getting hungry to. His limit's about to be reached and he really doesn’t want to lose himself now of all times. This is what Sabo gets for being too nervous to feed beforehand.

“It is getting close to lunchtime, why don’t we stop and eat before continuing?” Thatch voiced and everyone agrees. They set up a small camp to cook lunch, Ace and Luffy going off to hunt while the others helped set up. Sabo's trying to keep his distance, because now that he's noticing his hunger, he doesn’t want to be too close to everyone.

Once Ace and Luffy get back with their rather large kill, Thatch wastes no time in skinning and cutting the animal up before cooking it. Once it's all set and ready to serve, everyone grabs their own plate of food besides Sabo, who stands up.

“Pardon me but I’ll be right back.” He says before turning around to leave.

“Where are you going? Aren’t you gonna eat?” Luffy asks, looking at Sabo with his big innocent eyes.

“Ah no.. While I’m hungry it’s not for real food… if you get what I mean.” Sabo responds, not really feeling comfortable saying he has to go drink blood off a random animal. Ace raises a brow.

“What, don’t want to take up drinking from one of us? Could always ask.” Ace voices with a slight roll of his eyes. But this made Sabo snap and he just glared at his brother.

“I refuse to drink from a human! I never have, and I never will!” Sabo yells, taking all the human back by his outburst. Letting out a huff, he quickly walks away. “Excuse me..” Was all he mutters as he left to hunt.

~~

They all watch as Sabo walked away, still taken back by the rather calm vampires outburst. Ace didn’t think that topic was a sore spot for his blond brother. He chose to become a vampire, so why wouldn’t he want to drink from a human?

“The fuck was that..” Ace says, till confused.

“He must really hate drinking from humans.” Izo ponders, glancing at the direction the blond walked off in.

“But why? If he chose to become a vampire, then it would be obvious to him that humans are a natural food source. But…” Ace trails off, but with how upset Sabo just got, he was starting to think otherwise.

“Who knows, a lot of vampires refuse to drink from humans despite us being a food source. We’ve met quite a few like that over the years.” Thatch explains with a shrug and a wave of his hand. Ace just sighs.

“He must have been at the end of his ropes to. While setting up he was avoiding us for the most part. I wonder how long it’s been since he ate something..” Izo wonders out loud, and the others can’t help but nod in wonder as well.

“We can ask him when he gets back, yoi.” They all just simply nodded and went back to eating. After a while Sabo returns, his face neutral as he leans against a tree away from everyone with his arms crossed. While he was hiding his emotions well, they could all tell Sabo is still upset about earlier.

“So… How long can you hold off before having to feed?” Thatch asked as casually as he could while finishing up his plate. Sabo glances over at him and doesn’t reply for a moment.

“Four days. Five if I really push it.” Sabo explains carefully.

“Huh, What happens when you don’t?” Sabo sighs and looks at him.

“Have you ever witnessed a vampire who hasn’t had any blood? The one time it happened I couldn't remember a single fucking _thing_ about what I did. Let’s just say the person around me had a large gash on his arm.” Sabo growls, giving a careless shrug.

“That.. doesn’t sound fun. We have fought against starved vampires before. They’re insane.”

“Exactly. So I would like to avoid losing myself like that. If it ever happened I gave all my officers the go to just put me down if needed.” He explains, voice cool, like it was something casual. Telling a person you were going to let your people kill you them, it wasn't _nothing._

It’s not normal.

“Uh.. that’s pretty morbid.” Thatch mutters, noticing Ace and Luffy were both frowning. Probably not liking their brother talk about his death like that.

“Well I would rather die than hurt those I care about..” Sabo mumbles before kicking off the tree and walking over. “Come on, we should get going if we want to make any more headway today.”

Nodding, they all pack up and start walking away with Sabo leading the way. Instead of making small talk like before, Sabo stayed quiet this time around, not being in a talkative mood. Ace hated this, not liking the silence, but he also knew it was semi his fault for putting Sabo in a bad mood. So he takes a deep breath and walks up to his brother, walking beside him.

“I’m sorry.” Ace said, causing the blond to glance over.

“For?” Sabo asked, looking at him curiously.

“What I said before. It obviously pissed you off. So I’m sorry.” He explained, glancing away from his brother. Ace was trying his best to act like how he would around Sabo, he still hated his brother was a vampire but he shouldn’t let that piss him off forever without knowing the reason. Sabo was quiet for a moment, glancing Ace up and down, before sighing.

“It’s fine. It’s not like you knew anything regarding the topic. I shouldn’t have snapped like that, so I’m sorry as well.”

Ace tsked at this, bumping his shoulder against Sabo’s “Don’t be sorry you prick.. you had every right to be pissed.” He mutters, causing Sabo to just laugh softly. Maybe things between him and his brothers can be fixed…

~~

“We’re here.” Sabo says as they finally come out from the forest and into the large area where the organizations hideout and faction buildings were.

“It’s so huge!” Luffy says, looking at the large mansion like structure.

“How many buildings are there?” Izo asks Sabo, looking at the main building, but also saw multiple others around.

“About five. This is the main building that me and my partner found when we first started our organization. There was one other building behind this place, but once we got more members they helped us expand it. That one became agent housing. We have two buildings dedicated to the children, both acting a housing and education. The last one is for supplies and storage. We build three of the buildings from scratch, that took a lot of helping hands but we got it done.” Sabo explains as he leads them all to the entrance of the main building.

“What’s the main building for?” Marco asks as they got closer.

“This is where all the higher-ups live, but it’s also the main base where we have meetings, information gathering, and weapon storage in the basement. This did used to be a mansion home so it’s why the higher-ups live here. It makes emergency meeting easier to happen.” He says as he opens the door and takes them all inside. They all looked around the main entrance, when Law came walking down the hall.

“Oh, you’re not dead.” Law says casually as he walked over. Sabo rolls his eyes.

“ _No_ I’m not, thanks for the faith Law.” Sabo retorts and Law just smirked.

“I aim to please. So who are they.”

“These are the representatives that Whitebeard sent with me regarding the mission. This is Marco, Thatch, Izo, Ace, and Luffy. Guys this is Trafalgar Law, head doctor here.” He explains and they all gave a small greeting, but of course leave it to Luffy to leave an impression.

“You’re tattoo’s are so cool Torao!!” Luffy said, since Law was wearing a short sleeved button up with his shirt mostly unbuttoned.

“It’s Trafalgar.”

“That’s what I said! Torao!” Luffy’s smile brightens and Law’s eye twitched with annoyance. Sabo's trying his best to hold in his laugh so he puts a hand on Law’s shoulder.

“Law, why don’t you go and tell the others to meet me in the meeting room?” Sabo asks and gains an annoyed huff from Law.

“Fine..” Law walks off down the hall.

“Well isn’t he a charmer.” Ace says dryly, causing Sabo to laugh.

“Law might look like a prick, which, now that I think about it, he _is_ , but he has a good heart." He shakes his head affectionately. "Come on lets head to the meeting room. After the meeting I’ll show you guys to your guest rooms. We only have two but they have about three beds each.” He explains as he starts walking down the hall to the meeting room. They all follow and continued to look around, Ace holding Luffy’s hand so that the energetic ball sunshine doesn’t wonder off and get lost.

Once there he opens the door and leads them all inside, setting their bags against the wall near the door. While they do that Sabo goes over to the wall with extra chairs and brought them to the table for them all to sit in.

“Sabo!”He heard and looked over to see Koala walking into the room. He grinned at her.

“Koala!” He says with a smile. She glanced over at the others before looking back at him.

“I’m assuming it all went well then?”

“Yea, they’re here on behalf of Whitebeards to form a plan and get to know the organization a little better. So they’ll be here for a few days.”

She nods a little and looks at them all.

“It’s nice to meet you all, my name is Koala. I’m Sabo’s partner, the one that helped him create the organization.” She explains with a smile, causing Ace to glance over at Sabo with a grin.

“A girl huh?” Sabo looked at the eldest for a moment, not really registering at first. Till it clicked and he cringed.

“Ace no.” Sabo says and Ace just smirks more. But Sabo wasn’t about to explain that he lacks a sex drive for the fact of being forever a ten year old. That can be a conversation for after they rescue all the children.

“You two seem to know each other.” Koala pointed out, eyes Ace carefully.

“Ah well… Koala this is Ace and Luffy, my brothers..” He said with a small smile and Koala looked at him. He knew the question in her eyes so he shook his head slightly.

“I see. Well then it’s a pleasure to meet you both. If you’ll excuse us I have to talk to Sabo for a moment.” She said before grabbing Sabo’s hand and leading him to the other side of the room.

“What is it Koala?” He whispered, knowing she probably doesn’t want the group of Whitebeards to hear their conversation.

“Are you sure this is a good idea? With them here you can’t be yourself. I know you too well Sabo, and I know you won’t drop your transformation while they’re here..”She whispers back, causing him to smile a little.

“It’ll be fine… It’s not like it hurts me to be in this form more often, you know I can constantly hold it.”

“I know that Sabo but… you won’t be comfortable in your own home for a while. I don’t like that…” He smiles at her before putting a hand on her shoulder.

“It’s alright Koala. Right now all that matters to me is that we get those children out safely, my comfort isn’t important right now.” He explains and she sighs a little and nods.

“Alright..” She muttered with a pout. Sabo laughs a little and they head back over to the table, were people were starting to come in and sit down. Once everyone was all inside the room and sitting down, he and Koala sit next to each other.

“Ok this is everyone. To make sure you know, Betty, Karasu, Inazuma, and Ivankov are all vampires. While the rest are human.” Sabo explains causing their guests to slowly nod.

“I’m amazed Whitebeard actually listened to Sabo-boy. We were all worried he’d come back in a casket.” Ivankov explains and Sabo huffs, only half hurt.

“You all really had no faith in me.. jeez…” Sabo muttered, causing the rest of his officers to laugh besides Smoker.

“When Pops learned that it was children at risk here, he was willing to put differences aside to help rescue them. Our group isn’t a ruthless as others, yoi.” Marco explained and Smoker huffed.

“Got that right..” He said while crossing his arms. Thatch looks over at him and Tashigi, raising a brow.

“You two look familiar. Where are you from?”

“We both used to be part of the G-5 hunter squad. But after so much corruption we decided to leave. We then ran into Sabo and Koala, deciding to join their cause.” Tashigi explained and Thatch nodded a little.

“G-5 huh? Heard that branch was filled with traitors and murderers, good thing you left that. Even heard the leader Vergo, was working for a large criminal boss.” Thatch explained and Law scoffed.

“Not anymore he ain’t..” Law mutters, but only Corazon hears him.

“Why don’t we get back to the topic at hand? The children are more important than other hunter groups.” Corazon said, wanting to change the subject.

“Of course. Koala do we have the reports in the cabinet?” Koala nods and stands up, walking over to the large cabinet against the wall.

“I made plenty of copies of the report. So there should be enough for everyone.” She explains as she takes out a stack of files and bring them over. After passing the files around she sits back down with her file, giving Sabo his.

“Thank you. I’ll start with a brief summary then since you all know what the reports mostly say. But our scouts found a cave that was filled with vampires who prayed against children. Inside that cave were cells filled with children from different ages. What’s most concerning was a room our scout couldn’t see that had a horrible odor coming out of it.”

“What do you think it could be?” Thatch asked, hoping his idea wasn’t the answer.

“Honestly? As morbid as it sounds, I’m positive that it’s a part of the cave where they dump their victims dead bodies… Honestly I’m amazed they can stand that smell since a vampires senses are heightened from that of a normal human. So if it smelled horrible to our scout, I doubt it’s very pleasant to them either.” Sabo said with a small cringe.

“Aside from that room, our scout said there was at least 120 vampires within that cave. That’s probably not counting the amount that didn’t attend or was hidden from view.” Corazon explained and everyone nodded.

“Where exactly is this place?” Izo asks, looking up from the report.

“It’s about a week and a half journey south from here. The cave entrance is on the side of a large mountain. Our scouts made a map to the locations.”

Izo hums a little at the information and looked back at the reports.

“How many people are you able to gather for this, yoi?”

“On this short notice? About 60 or 70. We have over two hundred members, but many of them are scattered over the region in different branches or missions and won’t get here in time. For our branch, the main one, we can gather about 60-70 troops, along with the help of about five of the officers here. I have to leave at least 4 officers and about twenty of my troops here to watch over base and the children. If we had learned about this place sooner, we would have had time to gather more forces. But sadly that wasn’t an option.”

Sabo explains with a sigh as he rubbed his face. Their organization is scattered to cover more ground, and some are even starting to go overseas to start new branches in other areas. Despite having a good amount of members, he couldn’t gather them all in time.

“How many hunters do you think you could enlist the help of?” Koala asks the Whitebeards and Marco thinks for a moment.

“Pops will probably send about 8 commanders, those here included. I think each commander should bring about 10 each from their division. So that’s about 140, 150 in total on both sides.” Izo says as he does the math in his head.

“Don’t forget about me and my squad!” Luffy said with a pout, causing Ace to roll his eyes and ruffle his hair.

“Alright, so then around 150 to 160 in total depending on how many you can muster.” Ace says while glancing at Sabo. Sabo nodded a little as he starts thinking.

“That would be a good amount to fight them.. and the Whitebeards are the most skilled hunter group so we have that as well.” Sabo mutteres as he thought about the situation. Koala glances at him and sighs.

“Alright we lost him. I’ll smack him out of it when we’re done.” She says with a sigh.

“What do you mean we lost him?”

“When the Chief gets thinking like that it’s always something to do with a plan. For some reason he gets deep in thought when thinking of plans.” Inazuma explains to them and they just nod a little.

“So we have the amount of people we might be able to get. Karasu do you think you could send out notice to our scouts within a 30 mile radius that they are in need to come back ASAP unless they are on a top priority mission?” Koala looks at the masked man, who nodded.

“Of course.” He said, though it was fairly muffled because of his mask that he forgot to turn on.

“Then I think for now that is all we can talk about. This moron will probably need a day or two to cook up a proper plan. God he isn’t going to sleep, that’s gonna be so annoying…”Koala rubbed her face with a groan. “Karasu go and send out the notices right away. Have the information department help you.”

Karasu nodded and stands up, leaving the room to go do his task.

“I would like to get back to the children. While I trust the others, you know how difficult it is to get the much younger ones to listen.” Ivankov says and Koala nodded at them.

“Alright. Also has there been any reports about abilities causing problems?”

“Nothing that I can report that’s serious. The mind reader is having a blast and its annoying..” Law said with a sigh, looking pretty pissed off at this.

“Yea I’ve heard she’s been causing some problems.. well as long as she doesn’t hear anything… inappropriate then it’s alright. You can go back to the children, we’ll probably stop by a little later.” Inazuma and Ivankov both nod and leave the room to go back to the children’s buildings.

“Ok since that’s all to report..” She says, as she reaches next to her and smacks Sabo upside the head. He jumps and holds his head, glaring at her.

“What was that for!?”

“The meetings over so there isn’t a need to wrack your brain right now.” Koala just gave Sabo a look and he just huffs.

“Well you didn’t have to smack me…” He says with a pout before standing up and sighing.

“You two usually like this?” Izo asks them. They both look over and nod.

“Yea basically. I’m the only one who really knows what goes on in his head most of the time. But if he’s in deep thought like that the only way to get him out is me smacking him.”

“And it’s not a light smack either, she’s strong as hell so even her playful punches hurt…” Sabo mutters, rubbing his head where she hit him.

“You two have a very interesting relationship it seems then.” Izo smiles at this though, finding the two somewhat entertaining.

“When you’ve been through as much shit as we have together, you basically are able to read each other like a book. And while he can lie himself out of most situations, he can’t with me.” Koala explains as she stands up and heads to the door as Sabo follows.

“Come on, we’ll show you to your rooms. You can decide who sleeps in what room and what beds.” They all stood up and grabbed their bags, before following the duo out of the room and down the hall. They’re lead upstairs where most of the bedrooms were, till they stopped in front of two doors.

“They both have three beds each but obviously that’s more than enough. Mine and Sabo room’s are a couple doors down, and the bathroom and baths are down the hall and to the right. You can use the kitchen downstairs as much as you like, but stay away from the silver fridge. That’s where we store the blood from the animals we hunt for the vampires in the main building. Oh, there is also a library on the first floor.” Koala explains to them, and Thatch is the one to speak up.

“Do all the vampires here drink animal blood?” He asks carefully, knowing the subject of drinking from humans was touchy to Sabo.

“Just about. If we’re low on blood and can’t get any for a while from animals, one of the humans will donate their own blood, but usually that’s never the case since we’re good at keeping up stock. Well, most of the vampires, Sabo is a stubborn son of a bitch.”

“Oi!”

“Anyways, get settled in and meet us at the entrance. I’m gonna assume you guys want to meet the children?” She asks looking at the group, but Luffy’s smile brightened.

“Yea! I wanna meet them and play with them!” He said, causing her to raise a brow.

“You’re… a teenager right?”

“He is, but he has the mental capacity of a 7 year old.” Ace explains with a shrugs. “Luffy’s basically a glorified toddler.”

“Probably no more than our own glorified toddlers. Alright get settles and meet us down stairs in a half hour then. Come on.” Koala grabs Sabo’s cheek and starts pulling him along. The others couldn’t help but think they’re like siblings, Koala acting like an older sister.

“That was interesting.” Thatch mutters, the other nodding at this.

“This place is… unique. Humans and vampires working together like this without any conflict, its impressive.” Izo points out.

“And for the humans to follow a vampire leader without any second thoughts. That’s some insane trust.”Thatch theorized as Ace nodded a little.

“Sabo’s like that. He’s always able to gain the trust of those you least expect. One time when we were kids he gained the trust of this gang leader. That was an… interesting friendship till the gang changed territories.”

“Sabo’s so awesome!” They all smile at Luffy at how he praised Sabo.

“Well lets set out bags in the bedrooms and meet those two downstairs. I’m curious as to the children, yoi.” Marco heads into one of the rooms, followed by Izo and Thatch. While Luffy and Ace took up the other room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, Tsuki here. So um, I'm really sorry for the late update.
> 
> In January we had to put my cat Ziggy down. I'm was not ok to continue writing (still not ok but getting better). He was my baby, would always follow me around like a little shadow, and was very important to me. He helped me through a lot of bullshit and so this really hurts. But life moves on regardless. I'll be ok, I just needed a break, so updates might be slow from here on out due to life, I'm truly sorry.
> 
> Thank you all so much for reading and sticking to this, it means a lot. I promise when I post chapter 9 we'll get to the good stuff with the children. So till next time and thank you again for being so patient with us, <3.


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